Live to Love
by rileyluvr13
Summary: Rose Weasley and Scorpius Malfoy. Two people. One love. A million stories. Collection of fifty unrelated Rose/Scorpius one-shots and drabbles. Written for the 50 Art of Words Challenge.
1. Midnight

**A/N: Please read! **I'm writing this for the 50 Art of Words Challenge on the forum Harry Potter FanFiction Challenges. Basically, I get 50 prompts and have to do write a story with them.

So, I'm writing 50 separate one-shots. Each will be disconnected to the others, meaning that the first one won't relate to the second, the second won't relate to the third, etc. However, I'm going to try to stick to similar personalities and basic facts for less confusion. There will be changing tenses and point of views, too. So, enjoy! :)

**Disclaimer:** I don't own the Harry Potter series or anything related.

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_**.:Live to Love:.**_

**.x. **_**midnight**_** .x.**

It was on midnight, August thirty-first, when I was born. It was on midnight during an angry nightmare that I accidentally set my bedcovers on fire.

In short, things happen to me on midnight.

So, it would make sense that it was also on midnight I was first kissed by Scorpius Malfoy.

It reminded me of the fairy tales we always read about in Muggle Studies class. The one thing the Muggles did to occupy their time seemed to be to write stories about princesses and princes that magically fell in love. My favorite had to be Cinderella's tale. The talking animals were lovable, and the fairy godmother was the closest thing to a witch I had heard of in Muggle literature. And, of course, something happened on midnight in that particular fable.

But in my fairy tale, things were… slightly different.

My prince wasn't anywhere near as charming as the one in that fairy tale, seeing that he often mocked and sneered at me. He was tall, pale, and blond, often strutting around like he owned Hogwarts. Being top of the class like I was, he was my enemy, and therefore, my best friend. He wasn't incredibly popular outside of the Slytherins, but had a smile that could send your heart fluttering like a million butterfly's wings.

I didn't quite have an evil family or a fairy godmother either. Unless you count Victoire Weasley, who made it her goal to make me feel guilty for not going to the upcoming ball by sending me a beautiful gown. Or my cousin James Potter, who appointed himself as my personal bodyguard, 'protecting' me from any hormonal boy.

Nevertheless, I still got my Cinderella fairy tale ending the night of the Christmas Ball sixth year.

Albus Potter had set me up with some cheap Gryffindor last minute, since I really hadn't wanted to go until I received that dress in the post. I knew I promised to meet Scorpius Malfoy sometime during that night – he was going with some stupid Slytherin girl who had bigger hair than brains – but he hadn't shown up yet. So I just sat there at the table with my cousins and little brother for the majority of the night.

When my date had left for a second to go get some drinks, Albus told me to go look for Scorpius with only one request: I had to be back by twelve midnight. Hugo Weasley, my little brother, wanted to go back to the common room then, and he sure had a bad temper when he didn't get his way.

So, I got up and searched through the dance crowd, making my way through swaying hands and hips, to only come up with a fruitless search. No Scorpius Malfoy. Defeated, I started walking back towards the Ravenclaw dormitory – Hugo had to have left early, he was paranoid like that – when I bumped into a hard, stony chest.

"So sorry, I'll just be on my…" I stopped babbling when I met the gray gaze that was staring into my blue one.

"I've been looking all over for you," Scorpius said, smiling a little as he put a hand on either one of my arms to steady me. My legs felt like a bunch of pudding. "Where've you been?"

"Sitting with my cousins," I answered simply. "But the real question is where _you _have been."

"I don't really think that is. I remember someone saying, I quote exactly, 'Christmas balls are an excuse for girls to bawl their eyes out'."

"Stuff it, Malfoy," I snapped. "Victoire sent me this dress, and I couldn't waste it. You _know_ that. And I remember you being less than enthusiastic about going too."

"Only because you weren't," he admitted with a completely straight face. I could feel that familiar Weasley blush creep up my neck and averted my gaze from his.

"So, what made you change your mind?" he asked with one eyebrow raised and a smile on his lips.

I stuck my hip out and put one hand on it. "How do you know I changed my mind? I'm not even at the ball, mind you."

"You're certainly not dressed for, I don't know, the library." He gave me the once-over with those piercing eyes of his.

"You're not either." It was true. He was in fancy dress robes, green, just like a true Slytherin would be. If I didn't know better, I would say he was dressed for, oh, I don't know, a _ball_.

"Well, then what are we dressed for?" Scorpius asked, leaning closer to my face. "If we're not dressed for a ball or the library."

"Mmm, I don't know. You tell me," I challenged. And I knew he would accept. Mr. Never-Turn-Down-a-Chance-to-Beat-Rose-Weasley Malfoy always grabbed at every chance to have something to brag about in front of me. Best friends make the best rivalry.

"Maybe… something… entirely…" And soon, he was inches from my face, leaning down. Our lips brushed, and the contact was already sending tingles shivering up and down my spine. I stretched upward for more, and he leaned downward, and I wrapped my arms around his neck, and his encircled my waist, and –

"_Rose_!" I pulled away quickly at the sound of my name. Standing behind me was the usual gang of cousins, including Hugo, Albus, and James Potter. He was the one who called me and looked livid at the prospect of me kissing a guy that wasn't approved by him. "Get your bloody hands off of him!"

"C'mon, it's midnight, let's go!" Hugo intervened, beckoning me.

I gave one last, long look to Scorpius. He was as surprised as I felt, but then I winked and followed my cousins down the corridor without looking back.

It wasn't exactly as if my dress suddenly turned into rags on the stroke of midnight, or I left a glass slipper right in the palm of Scorpius's hands. And, okay, I didn't exactly have a carriage to ride me to the Ravenclaw common room either – just a few nagging cousins.

But this fairy tale was _more_ than all right with me.

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**A/N:** Reviews are very much appreciated :)


	2. Cuckoo

**A/N:** Thanks for all the reviews and alerts and favorites! I'm absolutely ecstatic about the response. Anyway, enjoy some of the fluff in this one :)

**Disclaimer:** Don't own Harry Potter, or else there would've been more of an epilogue with, ahem ahem, Rose/Scorpius.

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_**.:Live to Love:.**_

**.x. **_**cuckoo **_**.x.**

"Well, I should stop talking now! Come on in!"

I smiled at my mother, who opened up the door wider to allow Scorpius Malfoy and I to step through the entryway. My mum was a kind lady with bushy hair that had some small streaks of gray in it. I was almost positive Scorpius could tell where I got my intelligent manner and competitive air just by listening to my mum blab on and on while we stood on the front porch.

There were a few moving photographs in the brightly lit foyer, mostly of two red-haired children – Hugo and me. Mum beckoned us further into the kitchen, where a stove, oven, and other cooking appliances sat. A table with four chairs was set with placemats and utensils for two. Just as I remembered it.

"I didn't expect you to come around, Rosie," she said and, with a flick of her wand, set two more places on the table. "You should have sent a Patronus, or owl, something!"

"Mum," I said as I watched Scorpius take in the surroundings of a house different than the Malfoy manor, "sorry, but we hardly knew we were stopping by ourselves. It's just we were in town and decided to visit."

"Yes," Scorpius said, stepping into the conversation and turning his gaze onto my mother, "we're very sorry for that. I just wanted to meet Rose's family. She talks about you all so much, and I got her to agree to take me."

My mother turned her twinkling brown-eyed gaze on Scorpius, and then flicked it back to me, a small smile on her lips. "Oh, really?"

"Yeah, Mum." I turned back to Scorpius, who was now standing in front of some old antiques belonging to the Weasleys. If he wanted to stick to that plan, then fine by me. "And I knew you had some time off today. The Ministry had to give you a break during Christmas sometime, right?"

"Right. And today was the day. I told you that." Mum shook her head and started towards the living room. "Well, in that case, I'll go get your father, tell him to head home now for dinner."

I nodded. As my mother left, a sinking pit dropped in my stomach. That was the one thing I had wanted to avoid: a confrontation with Dad. I was absolutely positive he wouldn't take my relationship with Scorpius well – at all. That was the main – OK, _only_ – reason why we hadn't bothered to tell them we were coming.

I felt a pair of strong arms encircle my waist from behind once Mum was completely out of sight. "You really do have a lovely family."

"You're just saying that because you haven't met my dad yet," I said, rolling my eyes.

"Maybe, maybe not. Although, I can't figure out for my life what this bloody weird contraption is." Scorpius moved away from me and went to stand by an antique on the wall. It was old and wooden, with three hands ticking around a few numbers in a glass circle, each moving at their own pace.

A simple Muggle clock. Probably the only one in this house.

"Oh, yes, that," I said. "It was given to us by Grandpa Granger. He's a Muggle, of course, and my mum couldn't resist but to put this up when he sent it. It's been in our house for ages."

Scorpius nodded and pointed to a door just below the small glass clock, set into the wooden framework. "And this?"

"That?" I reached behind the clock and pressed a single button. Instantly, a gray, wooden bird sprung out of the door, chanting the small cry of 'cuckoo, cuckoo'. Scorpius's eyes widened to the size of quaffles and his mouth dropped open, which made me laugh. The wooden bird slowly retreated into the framework again, and the door clamped shut with a click. It was silent again.

"What the _hell_?" he asked, astonished. I once again laughed, and he placed a hand over my giggling mouth when I wouldn't stop. "What _was_ that?"

"A cuckoo clock," I gasped once he removed his hand.

"Cuckoo clock?"

"Never heard of it?"

"Well, no. I don't have ties to Muggles, if you remember." He traced the outline of the door with one long, pale finger. "Cuckoo is the name of the bird?"

"And the sound it makes," I added. "But, you know, it's an actual word too."

"Oh, really?" He turned to me, a small smile playing with the corners of his mouth.

"Yeah. It can mean something crazy, silly, wild."

He looked at me with a bemused expression on his face, then back at the cuckoo clock. The way he was interacting with Muggle inventions and expressions was beyond amusing. Me? I had grown up with them all my life, having Muggle grandparents. Him? Not so much.

"Well, then, that clock is cuckoo." Scorpius shook his head slightly.

"This conversation is cuckoo."

"You're cuckoo."

"I'm cuckoo for you." I placed my hands on his shoulders, leaning up to give him a small kiss as he smiled a wide grin and put his arms around my waist.

Of course, that's when the front door banged open and footsteps came to a sudden halt a few feet away from us.

"What the bloody _hell_?"

It seemed we had some explaining to do.

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**A/N:** Please tell me how this is coming in a review! :P


	3. Burn

**A/N:** Wow, thanks for the reviews, and support, and everything! It's really encouraging to me when I find a nice review or favorite, or even alert added! :) Anyway, enjoy this one! It's probably one of the first ones I wrote – I had the idea for a while. So, enjoy!

**Disclaimer:** Don't own Harry Potter, the usual.

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_**.:Live to Love:.**_

**.x. **_**burn **_**.x.**

I remember one day in Potions third year.

Professor Griffith had assigned us the Shrinking Potion for that class. We were to concoct it, bottle it up, and test it on our desks with him watching. He would grade it based on the success rate. So, if it turned into a tree, obviously we passed. I remember inwardly thanking him for not trying it out on my owl, since Uncle Harry constantly told us of the time the old Potions teacher, Severus Snape, tested it on Professor Longbottom's toad.

That class was double potions with the Gryffindors. For one rare period, I was partnered with my best friend Albus Potter. Professor Griffith never put us together, being cousins. But, he must have had too much mead to drink at dinner the night before, so Al and I were set to work together on the Shrinking Potion.

Let's just say that Potions wasn't, and still isn't, Al's forte. Actually, quite frankly, he has to be the worst potions concocter in the entire universe, even _with_ one of the world's greatest Potions masters as his middle name. If there was a way to screw up a potion, Albus Potter would find it, guaranteed.

"Al, you stick with putting everything in, OK?" I said to him once I planted my Potions book next to his cauldron. "No offense, but I don't trust you with any of the ingredients."

I, on the other hand, am not terrible at potion making. It has to be my easiest subject – no doubt handed down from my genius mother to me. My dad's misfortunate gene must have skipped my generation.

"I wouldn't trust me either." Albus grinned a little. He knew how bad he was at Potions and warned anyone who worked with him.

So, I started pouring the leech juice and cutting the caterpillar. Al stuck to adding and stirring – according to my strict directions, of course. Everything was going smoothly, even working with the world's worst potion concocter.

"Okay, Al, here. Add this." I handed him some daisy roots, cut into a few big chunks. Albus took them with care, cradling them in the palm of his hand.

I turned back down to the cutting board in front of me, picking up the knife to start cutting again. I hadn't even started to chop up the rat spleen when I felt a searing pain ripple up my left arm.

Letting out an anguished cry, I stumbled backward from the table while Al looked on in horror. My affected arm was hot, hotter than anything I had ever felt. It was sizzling, frying, burning with the intensity of the sun. The pain was almost too much to bear.

"Oh, _Merlin_, I'm so sorry, Rose!" Albus had cried faintly in the distance. I was hopping around on one foot – no idea how _that_ was supposed to help me – and eventually stumbled over my chair and hit my head on the stone floor.

And, as you can guess next, I blacked out.

Needless to say, that wasn't the only thing I remember about that day. It wasn't the way that Albus dumped the daisy roots into the potion to spill it on to my delicate skin, and it wasn't the way my arm had burned furiously from elbow to wrist. It was something entirely different.

I was lying in the Hospital Wing a day later – Madam Pomfrey _insisted_ that I didn't leave until the huge bruise on my head was fully healed – when a familiar white-blond haired boy came to visit.

"Word's around school," he said with a wide grin on his face. "Burn and concussion? Merlin, I didn't even think it was possible for both to happen simultaneously."

"It was all Al's fault," I grumbled, frowning, as Scorpius Malfoy took a seat next to my bed in an old, rickety chair.

"Al's fault or not, you're still in this bed." Scorpius looked at me with a gaze that I thought held some pity. But when could I ever decipher Scorpius Malfoy's emotions?

"True." I sighed, adjusting the bandage wrapped around my head. I probably looked like a freak mummy. "I'm going to be _so_ behind in all my homework, not to mention class work. Professor Griffith already gave us a zero, Al just told me, and – "

I was silenced by Scorpius's finger on my lips. I instantly shut up, closing my mouth tight with wide eyes. When I looked up at him, he moved that hand to caress my cheek. Softly, gently, tenderly. "You're Rose Weasley. You'll do fine."

It was like a million fireworks had burst on my skin where he touched me. I could feel the blood rise to my cheeks, but I was too caught up in the brushing of our skin to care. The soft caress was sending tiny starbursts dancing, and it was so strong I lost all sense of anything – which I was known for, mind you.

And then, he pulled back and left without another word, his gray eyes as unpredictable as always.

If Al's potion burned me, then Scorpius Malfoy's touch scorched me.

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**A/N:** I'd really, really appreciate it if you took a few seconds to review :)


	4. Whitewash

**A/N:** Gosh, thanks for all the support, everyone! It's really fantastic. Anyway, this isn't my favorite drabble. Kind of short, and the prompt was really hard. I actually had to go to a dictionary and look up the meaning. But, anyway, I hope you like it! :D

**Disclaimer:** Do not own. There.

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_**.:Live to Love:.**_

**.x. **_**whitewash**_** .x.**

I am nowhere near perfect.

Some people think the one way to be beautiful, smart, talented, or even _amazing_ is to be perfect. But it's quite stupid for them to think that, anyway. Because, to be perfect, you've got to hide your imperfections. Whitewash them. Conceal them from the outside world.

I once went out with a boy in fifth year that made me feel as if I _should_ have been perfect to match him. Since I was best friends and cousins with Louis Weasley – who, might I add, had an eighth of veela blood in him – he had a lot of decent-looking friends who occasionally asked me out. And, when the opportunity arose, I agreed to go out with Jason Corner, trying not to be a heartbreaker.

He was the illusion of perfection. Perfect white teeth, perfectly styled black hair, perfect non-creased robes and shiny shoes. Everyone seemed to love him, and I couldn't remember hearing one bad thing said about him. He made me feel less than comfortable in my own skin, considering how I was seen around school with this wizard who was pretty much 'the greatest guy on earth'. The comparison between us was so different.

The way he carried himself made me feel like some hunchbacked sloth in the prehistoric times. The way his skin was smooth made me feel like I had to powder my face in make-up just to hide my ever-present orange freckles.

The way he was perfect made _me_ want to be perfect too.

Nevertheless, I wasn't anywhere near happy going out with Jason Corner. All he subconsciously made me do was try and try again to be the best I could be, strive for the flawless image that was never in an arm's reach for anyone. It wasn't any surprise that after only two months I broke it off with him – he even stayed completely composed throughout my whole lengthy speech about 'staying friends' and 'keeping in touch'.

After Jason, I gave up on boys for a while.

But then came Scorpius Malfoy. I was a little skeptical, because it seemed that, to every other girl in Hogwarts, he was the illusion of perfection, just like Jason.

But, in hardcore reality, he was far from it.

He _showed_ me he wasn't anywhere near perfect. In the mornings, he would abandon the Slytherin table and sit at the Ravenclaw table with me, not uttering a word to anyone and being a complete and total grouch. He could never seem to go a day without giving a snide look or sarcastic remark to at least one individual – it was in his blood, with a father like Draco Malfoy. And he even had one glossy, fake tooth, the real one knocked out in a Quidditch game second year.

So, now's when I ask: how does Scorpius Malfoy make me feel?

He makes _me_ feel perfect. Like I am the best witch that has ever come upon this earth. I am on top of the world when I'm with him, the only thing that matters when we're together. And suddenly, _I'm_ the one who's perfect, who's treated like the illusion.

Even though I'm far from it. In my opinion, he's closer to it than I will ever be. But when he whispers into my ear on a cold, stormy night that I am the most beautiful being ever to walk this planet, then I know.

I know it doesn't matter that he's not perfect. I know that it doesn't matter that I'm not perfect either. Because we're happy together, and perfection is really just a silly, unachievable illusion, anyway. We're both flawless in each other's eyes, and that's all that really matters.

Because he's simply Scorpius Malfoy, perfect for me, Rose Weasley.

And only me.

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**A/N:** Please leave a review? It won't take long! :P


	5. Sunbathe

**A/N:** Wow. I'm stunned. Seriously. Thanks for everything, everyone! Especially since I really didn't think that last drabble was any good. You guys are the bestest, ever. :D Anyway, I had this idea for a while. And when I wrote it, the beginning seemed a little odd, but at least the ending came out as planned! :P So, enjoy this fluffy one!

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Harry Potter. Not one little bit. Not one little teensy weensy bit. Nope.

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_**.:Live to Love:.**_

**.x. **_**sunbathe**_** .x.**

"Scorpius. Coming?"

I sighed and turned around to see Will Zabini standing a few feet down the corridor, one eyebrow up and questioning. He had wanted me to hang out with him sometime today, but I didn't really feel like it. I simply… wasn't in the mood. Not really.

"Nah," I said. "I think I'll just wait for Rose to come in." Then I went back to leaning against the hard, stone wall and gazing out of the window. Once again, I was left to spend my Saturday alone while Rose went outside with her ton of cousins. Luckily for her, it had turned out to be a beautiful day for the first few hours, but now there were some dangerous dark clouds on the horizon, threatening to release buckets of rain down on Hogwarts.

Will let out a small chuckle and said, "Damn, you must love that girl a lot if you're willing to wait the whole day for her."

I smiled a little. Thoughts of Rose always did that to me. "Yeah. Look, see you later, okay?" And I turned back to the window, hearing his soft laughter and footsteps echo down the corridor.

A few minutes later, the doors leading to the grounds creaked open. I turned around and met the eyes of James, Albus, and Louis. They stumbled through the stone archway, dripping wet, laughing and spluttering. I knew full well that I should've reported them to a professor for tracking mud all over Hogwarts, since I was a prefect.

But I would never dream of doing that. They were Rose's cousins and therefore, excused from punishment. At least, in my eyes.

Why would I want to get them in trouble for something so little, anyway?

"Where's Rose?" I asked the group, and they turned their heads my way. Albus gave me a smile – he had played matchmaker when getting me and Rose together – and even Louis waved a little in his mud-caked state.

However, James scowled and said, "Oh, bug off, Malfoy."

"James, he's just asking a simple question," Louis said, and then turned back to me. "She's still outside."

"She didn't want to come in," Albus continued, nodding his black-haired head. "It started to rain. She likes the rain too much."

"Yeah, which obviously means she appreciates being alone out there, so don't get any ideas."

"James!" Albus and Louis scolded simultaneously. James was _way _too overprotective of Rose, and when she finally got me as a boyfriend, it was just icing on the cake – a perfect excuse to hound me down and relive the old Potter-Malfoy rivalry.

Louis sighed and grumbled, "You tell Scorpius not to do anything bad, while I know very well you plan to shag Maria tonight."

James's mouth popped open in shock. "Louis! How dare you disrespect the name of Potter in such a foul – "

Realizing my part in this conversation was over, I simply said, "I'll just be on my way, then. Thanks."

"Bye, Scorpius!" Al waved a little as the trio continued down the brightly lit corridor, James and Louis arguing all the while.

I knew I should've left Rose outside, just like James said, but I didn't want her catching a cold or anything. What good would it do for her to screech about missed classes while sick in bed on her own account? So, I pushed open the heavy oak doors and stepped out into the rain.

It was pounding and blinding, those thick fat drops never failing to hit me. Since my robes were getting wetter by the second, I started to sprint across the grounds towards the tree by the lake where Rose and her cousins always sat. I knew she'd be there even before I saw her lying down at the base of the leafy tree by the lake, arms and legs spread out, eyes closed.

"What the bloody hell are you doing?" I asked her when I reached the shelter of the leaves. Rose, however, wasn't covered by the tree, which meant she was getting soaked by the second.

Without lifting an eyelid, Rose responded, "Sunbathing."

I stared at her with what I expected was a dumbstruck expression on my face. "You can't be serious. You can't sunbathe in rain."

"Well, you better believe it, because I am." I moved into the rain so that I could stand at the bottom of her outstretched feet. Her robes were soaked from the soft moisture falling from the sky, and her wild, red curls were spread out around her head like Medusa's snakes. She was peaceful and relaxed, the soft dusting of freckles on her nose standing out against her skin.

I couldn't remember a time where she looked more beautiful.

"How can you be sunbathing, Rose?" I asked, touching my foot with hers.

She kicked me back. "Easy. Like this."

"But, you don't get it. There's no sun."

Finally, she peeked open one eyelid, but I only caught the blue flash of her eye on my gray gaze for a millisecond before she snapped it back shut again and said,

"There is now."

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**A/N:** Review? Please? :)


	6. Shed

**A/N:** Thanks everyone, for all this fabulous support! You all rock like Good Charlotte. (Don't know them? YouTube!) Anyway, I had a totally different plan for this one, and it just crashed and burned when I wrote it, haha. So, here's this one. As always, I know my weaker point is in monologue or long descriptions with no dialogue, so I'm not too sure about this one. But I hope you like it :)

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Harry Potter… nuh uh.

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_**.:Live to Love:.**_

**.x. **_**shed**_** .x.**

I had shed many tears for many different guys.

First, there was Michael Finnegan, a fiery Gryffindor in fourth year. He was a little on the lanky side, loved to speak his mind, and was purely obsessed with the Irish Quidditch team. Being a huge fan of the Chudley Cannons myself – passed down from my dad to me – we often got into huge arguments over Quidditch, or even the slightest things in general.

My cousins called it unresolved sexual tension. I called them the biggest toerags who couldn't see past their overly large noses.

Nevertheless, Michael and I started going out. And when we did, it was only one huge train wreck, and I started to seriously question my mental health that day when I said 'yes' to him. Michael was very opinionated and, when I didn't agree with him in the slightest bit, he would steer the conversation into a more hurtful route, lashing out at me during our few dates. I spent night after night crying my eyes out over this insensitive prat, complaining to Al that life couldn't possibly get any worse.

No, Michael wasn't any good.

Then came Aiden Thomas. He was strong, centered, and willing, one of those guys that someone would picture as 'the perfect guy' – clean cut and bright eyes. But eager seemed to be the most suitable word to sum him up. It seemed he would easily give his life to save an '_Avada Kedavra'_ aiming for me. Of course, I didn't return that strong intense feeling, but I stayed with him for a while anyway.

Big mistake.

Because then came a ball celebrating the date of the end of the Second War at Hogwarts, and I was caught dancing – I was bored, could you sue me? – with another guy. Not a big violation in my opinion, but, to Aiden, it was. He didn't yell, and he didn't scream. He just shook his head and said, with a voice that planted the guiltiest seed in my stomach, "Why?"

Of course, I let my guilt go in the form of salty moisture trailing from my eyes. Louis dealt with me that time.

And next was Will Zabini. He was probably the worst, only because he was a Slytherin and one whole year older me. Age differences hadn't worked out for me in the past. But he asked me out first, and who would turn down the chance to go out with a good-looking man, the envy of the school?

I went out with him for a year – the longest I'd ever been in a relationship. The break-up was brutal only on me, though. When graduating Hogwarts seventh year, he apparently 'lost interest'. I thought not, however, considering the way he was known for attracting the attention of older women.

It was Lily's turn to piece me back together that time. Poor girl. I felt pretty bad for her, the big and slobbering mess I was that week.

So, in short, it would appear that I had it with relationships of any kind after Zabini. I didn't want to cry anymore, didn't want to hurt.

The last go, the last straw, was Scorpius Malfoy.

He wasn't the easiest to get along with, even prior to going out with him. We had our rocky past, but it was never tear-filled. Once we eventually got past the whole prejudice between Malfoys and Weasleys, Slytherins and Ravenclaws, we got along fine – that is, after he grew a nerve and asked me out. Our last year, seventh year, was the best time of my life.

We spent time together whenever we could and kept our distance when things were heated and frustrating. It was like we knew what each other was thinking before we even thought it. We had perfect communication, and I could honestly say it was the best relationship I was in.

Because no tears were shed. Not one. Scorpius Malfoy never gave me a reason. Reason to cry, reason to let go of the dams we call tear ducts, reason to be sad. He didn't hurt me, and always apologized if he said or did something that could cause a potential rift. It was like he didn't want to see me cry over him.

He always told me he wanted to be the brilliance behind my beautiful smiles, not my crestfallen tears.

And, for that, Scorpius got his wish.

I shed none for him.

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**A/N:** I'd really appreciate a review! :D


	7. Balloon

**A/N:** As always, thank a bunch to everyone. Rushing to get this up, I have to go golfing (I hate golf). :( But anyway, this one's pretty long! I don't think the details of their fight are needed, though. So, enjoy :)

**Disclaimer:** Don't own!

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_**.:Live to Love:.**_

**.x. **_**balloon**_** .x.**

"Happy birthday, Rose!"

When I headed out of the Burrow that afternoon, the sight I met left me speechless. All of my cousins and friends were crowded in the Weasleys' backyard, beaming at my startled expression. A picnic table, towering with tons of snacks and desserts, sat behind them, and some color changing balloons and fireworks from Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes lit up the dusky sky.

Honestly, for an observant girl, I missed a lot of things. One of them being a planned surprise party behind my back.

"No _way_!" I screeched, running forward to hug my mum. "A surprise birthday party? For _me_?"

"Of course! Our one and only daughter," my mum said into my ear above the chattering crowd behind her. She gave me one last squeeze before letting go and allowing my dad to engulf me in a tight hug.

I eventually gave up trying to remember how many people were there. After I had hugged Uncle Harry, Aunt Ginny, Uncle Bill, and Aunt Fleur, it was safe to assume that every single one of my adult relatives were present, whether I had hugged them or not. The little cousins rushed up to me next: Lily, Lucy, and Roxanne. Hugo was somewhere in the mix, eager to run off and play Quidditch with James in the forest behind the Burrow.

My older cousins came next. Victoire chastised me on my slacks and over-sized T-shirt outfit. But, after a quick squeeze, she pulled Dominique ahead and I hugged her too. Molly came next, and she gave me a stiff 'arm-draped-around-shoulder-almost-hug' that I barely recognized. Fred fought his way through the crowd sometime or other for a birthday greeting, even though he was way older than me and I had only seen him once or twice in my seventeen-year-old life.

Grandpa and Grandmum Weasley both swept me into a duo-hug that crushed my lungs. My twin friends Lorcan and Lysander Scamander were there too with their parents, as well as some of my friends from the Ravenclaw Quidditch team.

But there was one person in particular that seemed to be missing.

Fighting my way through the mass of people gathered around the huge backyard table, I found the person on my mind standing a way off, chatting with Albus and Louis. I approached them with a wave. Louis instantly ran up and greeted me, overlong strawberry blonde hair swinging behind him.

"Hey, Rose, you were surprised, right?" he asked in a hurry, grinning.

"Of course, Louis. Thanks, you're the best." I hugged him quickly – what was it, hug-a-palooza today? – and he waited beside me as Albus approached us.

He grinned a little when I met his emerald-eyed gaze. "Did you have any planning in this, Al?" I asked when he was close enough to hear.

Albus shrugged, and the white-blond boy that I saw over Al's shoulder gave me a little smile. "Maybe," Albus said. "Not much. Just a little bit. Barely anything."

"Oh, stop, Al," Louis said, punching his cousin. "He planned the whole thing, practically. It was his idea in the first place." I saw him glance over Albus's shoulder at the Slytherin boy standing by the brown fence, almost a little hesitantly.

Because Scorpius and I hadn't had… a good parting. The last day of school, we had gotten into a huge fight. There were hateful words exchanged over Merlin-knows-what, and we parted back to hating each other like first years again. The long summer had passed – those two whole months – and it killed me. Because I hadn't heard a word from him.

Until now.

But I only smiled wider at Al's previous sarcastic tone, pulled him into a bear hug and whispered, "Thanks, Al. I hate surprises. Therefore, I hate you a lot."

"Hate you too." We broke apart, grinned at each other to know we were kidding and meant the opposite, and Albus stumbled off in the other direction when Louis tugged on his sleeve.

Finally, the one I had been waiting for. I shyly made my way over to Scorpius Malfoy, who was standing there with a peculiar expression on his face. One that I couldn't decipher. "Hey."

"Hi," he said and took my hand to drag me closer. His palm was warm in a comforting way, for such a pale man. He put his other arm around my waist, let go of my hand, and reached over to a pile of color changing balloons next to us.

"Happy birthday," he whispered and handed me the balloon.

"Thanks," I whispered back, looking up at the rainbow helium-filled ball floating above me.

We just stood like that, in complete and utter silence. It was full and heavy, filled with things we needed to say, but didn't want to. That is, until Scorpius spoke up. "Look, I – "

"Don't be sorry, Scorpius," I interrupted, looking up into his pleading gray eyes. "I said some stupid things too. Don't beat yourself up."

His smile was pained. "I could barely stand it."

"The summer? Me neither. I just… I don't want another summer in silence."

"I don't either."

"Then I bet you're pretty glad that Al invited you, huh?" I joked, bumping his hip with mine.

He laughed, a sound I'd come to love. And, recently, to miss. "Term starts tomorrow, anyway. But yes, very glad. Your cousin's very nice. Louis's not that bad either."

"I know. They're pretty great." I looked to my right, where Albus, Louis, James, and Hugo could be seen above the treetops in an intense Quidditch match. James was yelling at Hugo, his face beet red, while Albus and Louis pumped their fists and high-fived.

"Yes," Scorpius said, his smile fading fast, "but please listen to me. I need to let you know I'm truly sorry, I didn't mean any of it." I could feel his voice reverberate from his chest, where I had laid my head. "I hurt you – "

"And I hurt you. We're even, OK?" I stared off into the evening sun. It was oddly comforting being in Scorpius's embrace, even with the silent summer we had shared, after all those hateful words were exchanged on the last day of sixth year. "Just let it go."

"Let it go?"

I nodded. "Yeah."

"How?"

"Like this." And I released the ribbon of the balloon I was holding, letting it float up into the clouds. Scorpius looked down at me with surprise in his gray eyes, but I simply redirected his gaze back to the color changing balloon drifting higher and higher into the sky.

I looked eagerly up into his face once the balloon was completely out of sight, only to find him staring down at me with a quizzical expression on his face. I sighed and interlaced our fingers.

"See? Go, going, gone."

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**A/N:** This is my longest one yet! Review to celebrate? :)


	8. Squeak

**A/N:** Muchas gracias to all the reviews and reads! I'm very grateful. Anyway, I thought this prompt would be very easy, and I'd get it done in two seconds flat. Yeah, NOT. It turned out to be hard, and I've rewritten this numerous times, and I can't seem to get it right, so I just posted it, and I'll let you guys decide how I did! :P

**Disclaimer:** I don't own the Harry Potter series, or else I'd write a whole new series about the Next Generation. Long live Hogwarts!

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_**.:Live to Love:.**_

**.x. **_**squeak**_** .x.**

Wasn't patrolling _supposed_ to include unruly wrongdoers out of bed late at night?

Rose Weasley was pondering that as she walked along the dimly lit corridor during midnight duties at Hogwarts. She was a prefect, and therefore obligated to patrol the fifth floor corridor. Albus Potter, also prefect, but for Gryffindor, wasn't patrolling with her that particular night. He was set on the fourth floor route.

Which meant, by the stupid Head Boy and Girl's schedule, that she was set to patrol with the Slytherin – and her only enemy – Scorpius Malfoy. Gryffindors and Slytherins were meant to hate each other and, even though Rose was in Ravenclaw, the animosity had been passed from her family to her.

In other words, she didn't really like Scorpius Malfoy, despite the house barrier. At all. Especially when he was late for duties like that certain night.

Rose crossed her arms over her chest. She had decided to go on ahead without Scorpius, which was proving to be pretty stupid. What if the Head Boy and Girl caught her wandering around in the middle of the night without her patrol partner? Rose would probably get it from them for leaving him, but what did it really matter? There was no one in the corridor, anyway. It was turning out to be a pretty uneventful night.

And just as she thought this, a hand clamped on her shoulder.

Rose let out a small squeak and jumped. Breaking out in a sweat, she turned around to find Scorpius Malfoy standing right behind her, laughing his thick head off at her small emission of surprise.

"Did you just _hear _yourself?" Scorpius said, mocking laughter pouring out of his mouth. "You squeaked! I _scared_ you!"

"Shut up, Malfoy," she grumbled, straightening her robes. Not like they really needed straightening. It was just something to do with her hands in the embarrassing situation. Rose turned on her heel and started walking down the torch-lit corridor once again, as if nothing had happened. When in actuality, Scorpius was never going to let her live this down. "You would be scared too."

"Doubt it," Scorpius said with ease, falling into step with her fast and furious pace. "Malfoys don't squeak."

"Oh, and let me guess. Malfoys don't show up on time for prefect duties, either?"

"Malfoys don't respond to nagging Weasleys that are too goody-two-shoes for everyone else around them."

Rose took a deep breath, steadying herself. Scorpius Malfoy infuriated her so, _so_ much. "I'm not a goody-two-shoes, just merely doing my prefect duties, like you should have been when I told you to meet me in front of the Ravenclaw common room twenty minutes ago! And that's stereotyping the Weasleys, you know. Have you _met_ James Potter?"

Scorpius rolled his eyes. "Not technically a Weasley."

"Yes, technically! His mum is my aunt!"

He put a hand on her shoulder. This time, Rose knew better than to make any disgruntled noise. It'd just be another thing Scorpius would undoubtedly tease her about. "I'm sure, Weasley. You're always right about everything."

"Finally, you're _right_ for once in your short life."

Scorpius removed his hand, and she didn't even have to look back to know that he was rolling his eyes at her, yet again. They seemed to annoy each other an awful lot. It was that way on Rose's end of the spectrum, anyway.

"So…" he started. "How is patrolling so far?"

"Boring. But, recently, it has gotten fairly annoying."

"Really?"

"Yes. Now go bug someone else, Malfoy, before I explode."

Scorpius seemed to get an idea, because he side-stepped Rose and stood in front of her, staring down at her with a smirk on his face. Rose had no idea what he was planning, but it couldn't be good. Scorpius never did anything for the betterment of herself.

"Hey, you know the Hogsmeade trip this Saturday?" Scorpius asked.

"Everyone knows about it." Honestly, he could be so dense!

"Would you explode if you came with me?" he asked, and Rose just stared at him, surprised. She had expected to just go with her friends, not get asked out – no matter how _strange_ the invitation was – by her only competitor. Weren't they supposed to hate each other, anyway? Not ask each other out to Hogsmeade?

"You can't be serious." Rose folded her arms across her chest and stared at him with a quizzical expression on her face.

"I am."

"I don't believe it."

"Malfoys are always serious." And he grasped her shoulders and brought his mouth to hers. Rose completely lost herself in the kiss. His lips were electrifying, and he pulled back all too soon, turning the other way and strolling down the corridor once again.

Watching him go, Rose let out a small squeak. Although, this one wasn't in surprise.

More like protest. Yes, protest, as she ran forward and brought his lips to hers once again.

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**A/N:** Please review! It'd make my day :D


	9. Sunset

**A/N:** WOW. Thanks for all the reads, alerts, favorites, reviews, everything! They all just skyrocketed, and I'm so, so grateful! But, be warned: this one isn't my usual fluff. There's tons of angst, so I hope I did okay with it. Enjoy :P

**Disclaimer:** I don't own. Nuh… uh. Nope.

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_**.:Live to Love:.**_

**.x. **_**sunset**_** .x.**

We are polar opposites.

He is the sunrise. The colors of the morning, with pale skin that glitters faintly in the dawn and hair containing scarce streaks of gold. Practically the whole pastel spectrum is present in him someway or another. By the heat of the day he looks the best, his white hair turning a richer blonde and gray eyes brightening until you can see the hints of ice blue near the pupil. He's alive and energetic by noontime and wakes up before the dawn breaks without fail.

Me? I am the sunset. My red curls halo my head like a soft ring of burning light. Dad jokes and often calls me his personal sun, thanks to the striking resemblance. My curls become wilder and wider throughout the day, sometimes catching a pink or orange streak later on. The thin layer of skin that covers me is a deep tan color, and my eyes are a bright blue that almost sparkles purple. And all my studying is always done in the dead of night, when I'm most awake.

The difference between our appearances is striking.

That should just be more proof to me that we are never meant to be together.

One lone tear trails down my cheek in a sorrowful march. Burying my head into the dip between my knees, I silently weep as the soft glow of the setting sun in front of me casts shadows throughout the Hogwarts grounds. The lake is placid and reflecting my curled figure on the smooth, glassy surface, only reminding me of the pain he – more appropriately, the cruel universe – has caused.

Sighing, I lift myself off of the damp grounds and wipe away a few stray tears. I take in one strong, centered breath as the sun creeps down into the far-off horizon. I am trying to be composed, collected. And I _can_ get through this, live through the excruciating pain.

I remind myself of the agonizing truth. That we are never supposed to be together. Just like the sunrise and sunset, we can't exist together, especially in any kind of romantic relationship. Only as separate beings, completing a whole, but never meant to be one at the same time.

We were stupid to give us a go. We were stupid to believe anything meaningful, happy, _beautiful_ would come out of that. We were stupid to think that we could make this star-crossed relationship work, despite him being a Malfoy and me a Weasley, when every inch of gravity and force was pushing us apart.

The last rays of light slip into the landscape, and I know that I have to face my fears. So I start off across the ground, taking steady gulps of air to calm my frazzled nerves. It doesn't work. Did I ever think it would?

I pass him as I am walking into Hogwarts. But I can't help but stop in my tracks when my gaze falls onto that stupid girl that messed up our relationship. She is practically hanging off of him, lips by his ears, probably muttering false terms of endearment to him that I used to whisper, only mine were true. I know I can't keep my gaze on that girl – I don't dare think her name, ex-best friend _who_? – and so, I bring it straight to him.

It turns out he's been staring at me this whole time. Blankly, not betraying an inch of emotion. No feeling in those gray eyes that remind me so much, at this moment, of a stormy morning where the clouds could release rain at any given time.

And I stare back with, hopefully, a more neutral expression than his. I can't help but notice his eyes leave mine for a second and travel across my tear-streaked cheeks and wet spots on my sweatpants from the soft moisture that had previously fallen from my eyes.

The girl on his shoulder tugs at his arm, but he won't move, not a single inch. And I won't either. Because we're locked in a stare-down, unspoken questions and accusations shooting through the connection between us. I can see through the arched window above the great oak door that it is completely dark now, no light escaping the darkness. And I feel a sharp twang where my heart is, and know it's time to turn around and continue down the corridor again.

I don't belong near him anymore.

Because, in twelve hours, it's his time to rise.

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**A/N:** Please review? Can we make it to 100? 0:)


	10. Puddles

**A/N:** No words can express my gratitude right now. Seriously. 16 reviews for one chapter!? Holy moley!! Thanks everyone so, so much. Oh, and about this one-shot. I personally like it. A lot. I guess because it was just so much fun to write. And also, I always imagine Luna's husband Rolf having black hair. Don't know why, but I do. So the Scamander twins have black hair in this story, but Luna's eyes. Anyway, I hope you love this one as much as I do :D

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Harry Potter, or I wouldn't be freaking out that I absolutely NEED to get to Borders, because I'd have my own library with every book in it.

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_**.:Live to Love:.**_

**.x. **_**puddles**_** .x.**

"Ack! _No_, Lysander, go _away_!"

I ran across the Quidditch pitch as fast as I could, bursts of giddy laughter bubbling out of my mouth, but not stopping for anything – or any_one_, for that matter. The clouds in the sky threatened a dangerous storm above my head, but what did it matter? All that did was Quidditch practice was over for the rest of the week, I was dead tired for studying at five in the morning each day, and Lysander Scamander had better get the _hell_ of out here.

As in, like, _now_.

"Aw, c'mon, Rose!" he yelled back, his voice joking and foolish, but I kept running as fast as my legs would carry me. Which, after a practice full of hard drills and formations, wasn't exactly lightning speed. "Just one little kiss! For good luck tomorrow?"

"No! Bug off!" I screeched, strands of my red hair falling out of the ponytail and into my line of sight. Honestly, how _annoying_ could this guy get? Where was Lorcan Scamander, the only one who _could_ tame him, when you needed him?

Nowhere close by, I could see for myself.

"Rose!" He pronounced my name like it had two syllables: _Roh-suh_. "Rose Weasley! Get back here!"

"And you get lost, Scamander!" I was almost at the castle. The outside ring of stands was only a couple hundred feet away, a huge gap between a red and blue one right in front of me. All I had to do was dart between them and I was home free – well, to the castle, anyway. While still sprinting, I turned my head in the opposite direction to spot my enemy's position. Lysander was gaining on me, his overlong black hair flying out behind him and crystal clear blue eyes lighted with something I couldn't place – playfulness or desire, possibly?

But it didn't really matter anymore, because when I turned my head around again, I ran straight into a stone hard chest that sent me reeling and stumbling backwards.

"Blue's a horrible shade on you. It's just destined to lose." I recognized the voice, that taunting, joking, mocking, insulting-my-Ravenclaw-uniform, familiar voice…

"Scorpius!" I screeched in delight and dove behind his nearly six foot tall figure, clinging to his shoulders with a strong death grip. Realization dawned on Lysander's face when he realized I had hidden behind Scorpius, and he slowed his pace considerably, preparing to stop in front of him. "Scorpius, save me. Save me from him!"

"What's he want, Rose?" Of course, any false threat to me was a real threat to Scorpius Malfoy, my best friend behind Albus Potter, no matter if it was a silly joke or not.

"A kiss. And there's no way in _hell_ I'm giving him one," I whispered into his ear as Lysander came to a halt directly in front of Scorpius, a teasing smile on his face as he looked around Scorpius's shoulder to see me.

"Oh, really?" Even though I was behind Scorpius and couldn't see his face, I still knew he was wearing the little smile that I loved.

"Yeah," I said. "So, go out there and kick his arse, OK?"

"Consider it done," Scorpius said in a low voice, and took one step forward, me moving with him.

"My good Scorpius Malfoy," Lysander said, adopting a polite tone. We all knew they were never the best of friends. On Scorpius's end, because Lysander was always giving these sexual threats to me, like this one. On Lysander's end, because he saw Scorpius as potential competition. "I would appreciate it if you released that beautiful witch behind you, for she is rightfully mine."

"I doubt I will," Scorpius drawled, slipping his wand out of his pocket and waving it around in Lysander's face. "I believe she doesn't want your company any longer. Now go back to the castle, or I'll be forced to fight you."

"What? _No_!" I screeched right in Scorpius's ear. A duel? Over _me_? It only seemed real in those romance novels with love triangles that my cousin Lily Potter read. "No fighting!"

"Very well, then. We'll have a duel," Lysander said with a small smile on his face while he brandished his own wand from his Quidditch robes. "Regular rules?"

"Regular's fine for – "

"Guys! You _idiots_!" I screamed. I definitely did not want them to fight for me, even though they both had silly grins on their faces. They had to be joking, but I couldn't take any chances. I stepped out between the two, putting one hand on both of their chests. "Stop. Just stop! It's about to – "

Before it had even left my mouth, heavy droplets began pouring from the sky, fast and furious. In a matter of seconds, all three of us were soaked to the bone, robes hanging off of us thanks to the weight of the water. I knew my hair had to be frizzing like crazy right now, but I really couldn't care.

"Rain," I finished a little too late. "It's about to rain."

"Then I guess we'll have to make this quick," Scorpius said as I watched the uneven Quidditch grounds – no doubt caused by tryouts last week, in which most participants barely knew how to land a broomstick – quickly become covered in puddles of various sizes. "Can't have our beauty get wet, can we?"

"Right," Lysander said. They both raised their wands into a dueling stance, prepared to fight. For me. _Through_ me.

I let out a final, "No!" before Lysander took one step forward, ready to cast a spell straight through me to Scorpius…

When his foot caught on a deep hole hidden by water. He fell right down on his butt, splashing around in the foot deep puddle he had just plopped in. I couldn't help burst out laughing and soon, Scorpius joined in as we watched Lysander eventually regain his cool and sit up from his plunder, soaked in mud and muck.

"That wasn't funny," he muttered and spit out a piece of grass, his face a revolting mixture of red and brown.

Scorpius grinned wider and, not bothering to help up Lysander, walked over to me as I was laughing my head off. The rain was making his white-blond hair lie flat against his wet forehead, and I couldn't help but think about how breathtaking he was, even though he was only supposed to be my best friend.

"I guess I rightly won what's mine then," he said and scooped me up with incredible strength, arms positioned under my back and legs, my head cradled against his chest. He kissed my forehead and whispered, "And I'm glad I did, too."

And as Scorpius started carrying me back to the castle, the rain pouring down on us in sheets, I couldn't help but take a peek over Scorpius's arm at Lysander behind us. He was struggling to get up, the mud weighing him down, and trying to clean all the muck off with his wand.

I turned back around, smiled up at Scorpius, and buried my head closer than humanly possible into his strong chest.

Oh, yes, the right man _did_ win.

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**A/N:** Please, please review. It'd really make me happy. :)


	11. Music

**A/N:** Many, many thanks to all of you who reviewed. It means so much to me. And, okay, I'll admit it: this drabble is very, very odd. I know with the prompt, there were SO many possibilities for fluff, or a sweet romantic scene, or a happy ending. But, this idea called out to me, and I'm so sorry if you don't think it's any good, so please excuse it if you don't. But, enjoy this one anyway :)

**Disclaimer:** Don't own Harry Potter, or I wouldn't be writing in this site, would I?

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_**.:Live to Love:.**_

**.x. **_**music**_** .x.**

When she was gone, the music stopped.

It was like we were dancing to our own rhythm, beat, pace. No one else mattered, but no one else cared, either. Because when we were together, we were just one. It didn't matter if we were in a crowded classroom, or eating in the Great Hall, or going head to head in a fierce Quidditch match.

We were together, and it was all that mattered.

It wasn't like we ever officially 'got together'. It was simply a gradual development of our relationship into a more romantic route. Being best friends – and enemies – we would shoot back funny quips and sarcastic remarks every chance we got. And eventually, all those jibes turned to flirty questions and sweet terms of endearment.

Nobody asked anybody out to strike up the awareness of 'us'. We had our first electrifying kiss in the magical creatures section of the library after studying for hours and hours. I didn't know how or why, but she ended up with her legs wrapped around my waist and took it from there. We never went on any dates or special trips or anything. It was just hanging out like we always did, with a little more added spark.

It was our own special rhythm, set to our own special song.

When I finally met her father after two years of whatever we were doing, he engraved it into stone, put it quite blatantly: "You're dating this Malfoy, Rosie?" And she turned to look at me, wondering what this meant, but I only shrugged, telling her with my eyes to just respond with what her heart told her – which meant, of course, that we were an item.

So she nodded, and it turned out okay, despite this label of 'boyfriend, girlfriend' we were given. We stayed strong for a very long time, but had the occasional upside-downs and break-ups like any regular couple. Just simple misunderstandings blown up to heightened arguments, like whose pumpkin juice was whose, and why we had only been together once that week. Simple things that would have been sifted over with any normal couple.

But we weren't exactly normal, were we?

We hated to be apart, visiting each other only briefly over the breaks for holidays we had during our schooling at Hogwarts. It was like her presence made me complete, and mine made her whole. Just like two interlocked jigsaw puzzle pieces, we didn't fit anywhere else where the other wasn't. Hogwarts was simply a mess for that reason, and we were only too happy to throw our wizard's hats in the air on graduation night.

After our education, we bought a house nearby her parents' – I was only too happy to get away from mine – and I proposed to her not two days later with her father's approval. She cried yes, and the one time I had to be apart from her – right before she was to walk down that long church aisle – made me question everything up to that point.

Why were we doing such a common, _normal_ thing when we were so different than everyone else? Why were we going to be joined in holy matrimony when it didn't matter if we were bound together with a priest's words or not, because we'd be together forever anyway?

But when I watched the church doors creak open, and saw the shining, brilliant look in her eyes, all the confusion floated away. Because, that that moment, I knew it was our thing, another beat added to our rhythm.

We lived happily together for another thirty years, until when she came down with a deadly disease. It was the single time I had ever seen her scared or uncomfortable around me. And I held her hand and told her we'd get through this, I'd be with her forever in life and death, and that our bond was simply too strong that it was impossible for her to leave me. She just smiled and patted my hand sympathetically.

When she died, the music stopped abruptly. It wasn't gradual, or a steep decline down. It was jerky and sudden, as soon as her body was an empty shell. One of those moments when the camera zooms in on you, watching to see what you would do next, mocking, now that the one you loved was gone.

Suddenly, the house was too small for my comfort. The eccentric décor seemed too bright and odd. All the weird paintings of witches and wizards felt out of place. At that moment, when she left my world, I felt the color draining from my face when I came to single sick realization that would change my life forever.

The music was her. And she was gone.

Dead was the music.

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**A/N:** Please leave a review, it'd make me very happy :P


	12. Ribbon

**A/N:** Thanks for everything, all of you. It really means so much to me! I apologize for the late update. And, just a quick explanation about this one-shot before I'm off to play my PS2: you need to have an imagination for this one, because I certainly had a wild one when I wrote it. So, I hope you enjoy it anyway :P

**Disclaimer:** Nope.

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_**.:Live to Love:.**_

**.x. **_**ribbon**_** .x.**

Aunt Ginny had given Rose her first ribbon when she was only nine.

It was long, at least two feet, and smooth, the creamy color of pink. Rose cherished the thoughtful gift with all her heart – her mum later told her it was worth a galleon – but wore it only begrudgingly. To be honest, she had never been the type of 'fancy, dress-up' girl that her mother desperately hoped she would be, but she wore the ribbon out of courtesy to her Aunt Ginny at family parties and outings.

But one day, when her personal idol Teddy Lupin told her she looked cute in it, she wore the ribbon even more often. Soon, it was ever-present in her tangle of red curls so much that the ribbon soon began to fray at the edges. Her dad kept questioning her as to why she would wear it, long after her infatuation with Teddy was over, when Rose came to an important discovery.

She realized ribbons suited her.

Her mum gave her the next one when she was eleven as congratulations for being accepted into Hogwarts. Of course the letter wasn't much of a surprise, but together with Al and Louis, it called for a celebration.

The new ribbon was a deep dark blue, longer than the pink one that she loved so much. Even at the tender age of eleven, Rose couldn't help but see a stark contrast between the two ribbons. The pink emitted a more positive and pretty message, while the dark blue was more solemn and trailing.

So, even at a young age that was way too rash for promises, Rose swore only to wear the pink ribbon when she was happy, and the dark blue when she was sad.

Albus got her the next one for Christmas that year. It was bright and yellow, shorter than the others, a sunny color. Comparing it to the pink and dark blue one, Rose concluded that it was just too radiant to be ignored, and vowed to wear it when was feeling incredibly accomplished or ecstatic. On those days, that ribbon would be swinging behind her head in a loose ponytail.

Victoire, Dominique, and Louis all pitched in one year later to get her a gigantic chest of ribbons. There were a variety of colors, ranging from blue to green to purple and even more shades of the original pink. As Rose delved more deeper into the voluminous box, she realized that there were even some carbon copies of the ribbons she already had.

Rose wasted no time in picking out a mood for each one – light blue for witty, green for sinister, purple for relaxed – and wore each and every one of them when the time was appropriate, except for one particular color.

The single red ribbon at the bottom of the chest. It would just sit there as the others became frayed and torn, smooth and silky and beautiful just like the day she received it from the Weasley trio. But even then, she never touched it. Because there was an unsaid purpose for the red ribbon that Rose wouldn't dare utter to anyone.

Especially to her good friend Scorpius Malfoy, who often chastised her for wearing the ribbons and being 'too predictable'.

"See? You're happy today. It's easy," he said when Rose came down for breakfast one morning, sitting by his side at the Ravenclaw table. "You're wearing that pink ribbon, the one you've always had. It's so easy to decipher your emotions, Rose. Believe me now?"

"Nope, Scorpius," she had grumbled and sat down next to him.

Nevertheless, Rose continued to wear the ribbons. Even when she entered her fifth year, at least one ribbon was present in her hair everyday, whether it was holding up a ponytail in the back or tucking a piece of hair behind her ear in the front. But as school got more hectic, Rose found her mood changing constantly, and thus changed her ribbon color practically every hour, accompanied by Scorpius's snide comments.

"The fifth one today," Scorpius said, rolling his eyes as she opened the chest on a couch in the Ravenclaw common room. "Did you hear me? Fifth."

"Yes, yes," Rose said, waving him off, and grabbed her orange ribbon – for frenzied. Before she shut the lid, he stuck his hand in the crack. She scowled at him.

"Hey, what's this one?" he said, grabbing the red ribbon and holding it out between his hands like a wand seller in Diagon Alley. She frantically tried to grab it from him, but he kept it completely out of her reach. "I've never seen you wear it."

"Just give it back," she growled. But when she wasn't looking, he must've slipped it into his pocket, because Rose couldn't find it anywhere in her trunk later in the day, and she didn't bother to ask for it. He was right, after all; she never did wear it normally.

It wasn't until a Hogsmeade trip in May that the ribbon made its reappearance. Rose was desperately hoping – the sparkling violet ribbon in her hair – that Scorpius would ask her to go with him, instead of them meeting at the Three Broomsticks later on. She was positive that he liked her, and she hadn't pulled the dark blue ribbon out of her trunk in months.

But he didn't. He went with a Slytherin bimbo instead, and when they met at that cozy little pub later in the day, Rose couldn't stand the sight of his lips locked on hers and immediately bolted out of the Three Broomsticks faster than he could say _Accio_. A few minutes later he had followed, finding her in a deserted corridor of a deserted floor with a gloomy gray ribbon in her hair back at Hogwarts.

"Hey, Rose." He slowed his pace when he saw her, but she only curled tighter into a ball and buried her face in her knees. "Why'd you bolt? Why, Rose? You're sad. The ribbon says so. Why?"

"Just go away," she grumbled, not allowing her blue eyes to meet his gray ones.

"C'mon. You know I'm not going away until you tell me why you're sad." Scorpius bended down on his knees, reached up with one hand, and caressed her cheek. "So, why?"

"You can't figure out by now?" She almost choked on the tears, thickness in her throat.

And, suddenly, realization dawned on his face, replaying the position he was in at the pub, the way the bell chimed furiously on her way out, the tears streaming down her face and the gray ribbon in her hair all day long. "Wait… you… you can't mean…" He ran one hand through his white-blond hair.

Rose just nodded, for a lack of something better to do or say.

So it was surprising when Scorpius took her face in his hands and placed a lingering kiss on her lips. Soft, sweet, and making her crave more. When he met her eyes, Rose gasped, "What… what was that for?"

"An apology." Scorpius smiled a little as he reached into his robe pocket and drew out an object that he held behind his back. She tried to peer over his shoulder to see it, but he just shook his head and firmly said, "Take your gray ribbon out."

"I… wait, why?" But, nevertheless, she obeyed anyway, releasing her tangle of red curls and shoving the gray ribbon deep into her pocket.

"For this." His reached behind her head, making her feel protected and safe inside the walls of his arms. She could feel the wind on her neck again, and looked up quizzically at Scorpius. But he only smirked when he placed the ends of the ribbon over her shoulders. And only then did she realize the color of the ribbon in her hair.

Red. For love.

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**A/N: **Please leave a review? Pretty please? :)


	13. Cake

**A/N:** Thanks for all the reviews and stuff, guys! You all rock. Oh, rushing to get this one up, because I've got a busy weekend, but just a quick note. I've never actually been to a wedding, only watched movies about them, so I apologize if I messed something up. Please mention it in a review so I can go back and fix it. With that said, I hope you enjoy this one anyway and won't want to beat me up at the ending :)

**Disclaimer:** Do not own, blah blah blah, nada, nope, done!

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_**.:Live to Love:.**_

**.x. **_**cake**_** .x.**

_I am standing in a church. At least, I think it's a church._

_I look down and see flowing white fabric spread out around me, and a bouquet of flowers clasped in my tightly interlaced hands. An arm is hooked on mine, and when I meet the bearer, it's my father, looking the same as ever. I glance towards the end of the long aisle, and my eyes widen when I see who's there._

_Scorpius Malfoy is standing right in front of the priest with a hopeful expression on his face. That is, until those gray eyes of his slowly but surely sweep the church and come to land on me. His face breaks into a smile so brilliant and exuberant that it just steals my breath, being directed at someone as simple as me._

_The music starts – I recognize it as the wedding march – and suddenly my feet are moving of their own accord down the crimson-carpeted aisle, my father with his head high by my side. It is all I can do not to trip in the white heels I have on that are propelling me forward._

_Faces look out at me from the pews on either side of the aisle. There's my mother and Aunt Ginny, teary-eyed and glowing. There's Albus standing a-ways behind Scorpius, although I have no idea what position he's playing or why he's up there. Heck, what the hell am_ I_ doing here?_

_When I reach Scorpius and stand at his side like a bride would, he looks down at me through his peripheral vision and whispers in my ear, "You look beautiful." I know this is supposed to be formal – at least, it seems that way – and I'm supposed to face forward, but I can't help but turn my head, red curls swaying behind me, and glance up at him with a smile on my face._

_There isn't any other way to describe it: we're radiant._

_The priest in front of us keeps talking about things I don't want to understand, but it doesn't matter anyway, because I'm too distracted to listen. Looking around, I see Lily Potter looks like a – my? – maid of honor, and she's standing not too far away, her brown eyes sparkling with tears. I have no idea why I picked her over some of my best friends in Hogwarts, but what part of this was making any sense in the first place? _

_Scorpius's gray eyes are now shining with the most emotion I can ever recall seeing in him, and I'm sure my blue ones mirror his. I don't know what or why I'm doing it, but my lips tell me to say, "I do." I turn to Scorpius to see he has already done the same._

_And suddenly, in a whirlwind I gave up following a long time ago, everyone is congratulating me at once. Everyone that I know, or even remember thinking about. Hell, even Celestina Warbeck is here! And yet, I can't even recall what's coming out of my mouth, or what's coming out of the mouth of everyone pumping my hand up and down and swooping me into huge hugs. I just know that this is what I have to do. _

_The only thing I know is that it's what I need to do to be with Scorpius._

_Surprisingly, my eyes graze over my dad and Mr. Malfoy, but they are okay. They're laughing and joking, jolly and getting along. This somehow doesn't seem real, not in the least bit, that two old enemies are happy with each other, but nothing about this day seems real, does it?_

_It's the wedding reception now. There's a gigantic white cake, about six layers high that sits in the middle of the beautifully decorated room. It's one of those elaborate ones, no doubt made by my grandmum Molly. Scorpius is staring at it in awe, and I can't help but gawk at it too._

_He turns towards me, and grins the smile that Merlin-knows-when I've come to love. It sends my heart fluttering like a million butterflies' wings. "I love you," he whispers, and leans down closer to me, his lips touching mine for only a brief millisecond._

_A jolt shoots up my spine, because the way he feels against me is breathtaking. This is what an initial kiss from a love is supposed to feel like, right? Then why are we getting married if I've only just shared my first?_

_And, suddenly, all too soon, he's not there anymore. A white haze fogs over, and the happiness evaporates from my being like a dry spring in the sun. It feels like I'm gasping for air, but in reality, I'm simply screaming for Scorpius Malfoy to come back._

_I'm fading, he's fading, everything's fading…_

My eyelids fluttered open, and I found myself tangled in my sheets in my blue Ravenclaw bed.

Gasping, I sat up and checked my outfit. Still the same old pajamas I wore to bed every night, no wedding dress. I wasn't gasping from the lack of air or dark fog either, thank Merlin. Scorpius Malfoy wasn't anywhere around. Right. I still hated the arrogant prick.

I let out a deep breath I hadn't known I was holding in. It was just a nightmare, right?

I mean, come _on_. Me, marrying Scorpius Malfoy? Only in my _dreams_.

Wait…

I did _not_ meant that literally.

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**A/N:** Please leave a review to let me know what you think :D


	14. Circle

**A/N:** Thanks, thanks, thanks for everything! After the next chapter, I'm considering taking a week's break from this story, because I have to get caught up on writing all the prompts. Nothing definite, I'll announce if it's true in next update. Well, enjoy :)

**Disclaimer:** Nope. Don't own.

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_**.:Live to Love:.**_

**.x. **_**circle**_** .x.**

"If I were a symbol, what would I be?"

Surprised, I looked down at Rose Weasley, who was resting her head on my shoulder with my arm around her. She was studying her Potions book – or, at least, trying to, anyway – while I desperately tried to soak in any information I could get for the big Transfiguration essay due soon. Noticing my gaze on her, she tilted her head, blue eyes wide and questioning.

"Symbol? What do you mean?" I asked.

"You know," she said, rolling her eyes, "in all the books and fables and stuff. People are always compared to something, like an animal or object. If so, what something would I be?"

I shrugged, idly twisting one of her many curls around my finger, feeling the golden thread of her hair between my fingertips. "An angel, no doubt."

She snorted and waved her hand. "Scorpius. I'm not an angel. If anything, I'm closer to the devil. Just like my cousin James."

"You're not the devil," I said and shook my head. She raised her eyebrows at me, probably questioning my mental status. Which was perfectly fine, thanks very much. "You're not in Slytherin. My house is full of Death Eater's sons, closer to hell than anyone else, so you can't be the devil. Someone like me, perhaps, could be the devil."

Rose only stared at me with a dumbstruck expression. We were curled in the corner of a wide blue couch in the Ravenclaw common room. Usually, I wouldn't be allowed in such a place, being banished back to the Slytherin common room, but Rose tried with all her might to earn my acceptance. And, a couple months later, I was finally allowed freely in and out – only with Rose, of course.

"No, not the devil," she said, brushing the idea off as if it were a piece of lint on her robe. "You're most certainly the angel, if we're still using that symbol."

"No," I objected, "I'm definitely not an angel."

She rolled her eyes and sat up straighter with her back against the couch. "Okay, so, back to the problem at hand. Besides an angel, what would I be?"

"I'm not going to say the obvious," I said, and she smiled a little. Everyone who was friends with Rose knew she hated it when anyone put too much emphasis on her name and the similarities she bore to it. Comparing her to a rose, giving her roses, and describing her hair, lips, or cheeks as a 'rosy' color all continued to annoy her.

Since I knew this, being her best friend for so long and then boyfriend, I knew to avoid the whole rose-theme when I wanted to ask her out. And here we were today, three years later, and thankfully in one piece.

"Go ahead, just say it," she groaned, rolling her eyes. "I'm a – "

"Dashing young woman who is just too irresistible for her own good?" I blurted out, and Rose turned her narrowed blue gaze onto me. I just shrugged my shoulders, which deepened her scowl.

"Seriously." She shook her head, burying it in a hand. "Okay. Forget I asked. Seems like you can't come up with anything."

When I started to protest, my mouth wide open and prepared to say the words, she put one finger on my lips and said, "Dare you say angel, and you won't wake up tomorrow."

I only grinned and held her closer to my side when she removed the finger from my mouth and placed it on her lap again. Threats to my life were very common these days, but she never really meant them.

"So," I said, "you think you're going to go back and study Potions? Give up on your symbol search?"

She shook her head rapidly. "I think I've done enough studying for that stupid class. How about you?"

"I know the material well enough to write a decent essay." I wrapped my arms tighter around her, and she brought hers up to rest around my neck. We were both at ease when we were intertwined. It didn't even matter that we were in a semi-crowded common room.

"Instead of thinking about a symbol for me," she said, leaning closer, "why don't we think of a symbol for us?"

"For us?"

"Yeah," she said, "as in couples. They have symbols. Sometimes it's a name, like in the Muggle magazines Lily reads. They squish their names together to form one name."

"Scorose?" I tried, appalled at how weird my name could twist Rose's into being. I never liked my name, not one bit, even when my mother or Rose endearingly said it. And there wasn't any exact way I could get out of this torture. I definitely wasn't using 'Hyperion'. My parents must have been drunk when they named me, obviously not realizing that it meant for life.

She shook her head, giggling. "Definitely not! But, sometimes, couples have an actual object for a symbol. Like, I know Al once went out with a girl one summer who ate apples all the time. And he liked apples too. So they were the apple couple."

When I just stared at her blankly, she said, "Isn't it just a little bit romantic?"

"No," I answered simply, but smiled to let her know I was kidding. She mock-punched my side and flopped back against my chest again. We sat there, contented, just listening to the commotion around us, breathing heavily, when Rose spoke.

"You know," she said quietly, "I think I have a symbol for us."

I looked down at her. She was at peace, just resting on my chest, staring straight ahead into the red flames of the fire. When she felt my gaze on her, she looked at me and gave a small smile. "What is it?" I asked.

"A circle." She only kept staring into my eyes, fearless, as she gave the explanation. "A circle goes on forever and ever. Like our love for each other."

She reached up and planted one chaste kiss on my cheek, trying to strengthen her point. And it worked. Because she was absolutely right. A circle _did_ suit us. Our love, around and around and around again, and never stopping. Ever.

"That's perfect," I breathed.

And she laced my hand with hers. "Always will be."

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**A/N:** Please review :D


	15. Colorful

**A/N:** Thanks for the reads and reviews, everyone. I really appreciate it. And, now I announce, I will be taking **a one week break** from this story. It's only so that I can get caught up on my writing of all the prompts. Because I want to do the best I can with this story, I'm really dedicated to it and don't want to screw it up, so that's all. I'm sorry if I'm letting anyone down :(

Now with that said, I don't like this one. It seems… off. Also, if anyone hasn't noticed already, I'm not British (big surprise!) so I spelled "colourful" as "colorful". I hope that's okay, if any creators of the challenge are reading this. And, finally, enjoy :)

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Harry Potter.

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_**.:Live to Love:.**_

**.x. **_**colorful**_** .x.**

"God, just go away, Scorpius! I can't stand you, you're so bloody arrogant!"

"Oh, yeah? Well, then you're a goody-two shoes."

I took one deep breath, my emotions whirling and swirling inside of me, and turned on my heel to face him. Good thing the corridor was nearly deserted, give or take a few straggling passerby. That way, no one would see me hex this git into oblivion for being so gosh darn infuriating.

"You're such a Malfoy!" I hissed and crossed my arms over my chest in a defensive stance. Hopefully it seemed very intimidating and scary to him.

But, obviously not, seeing as he copied my movement – and made it better. "And you're a Weasley."

"You're sloppy and disgusting!"

"You're a perfect prefect."

I tried to keep my head level, even with the blinding red rage that was creeping into my vision. Scorpius Malfoy had already insulted me not even thirty minutes ago, canceling out whatever friendship we could have had with our weird ritual in the library, but now? He only wanted to call me some more names, not apologize, just to get me angry.

Merlin, save him – _me_ – now.

"You're a two-faced toerag who can't see past your own nose to find out that nobody likes you because you're such a huge _prat_!"

"You're an annoying little girl."

The way he was saying everything – without the annoyance, anger, and ferocity I put into my insults – was seriously ticking me off. He was saying it like it was just a simple declarative statement, a fact. There wasn't even an ounce of joking in his tone, which made the hairs on my neck crawl in disgust.

So I closed my eyes and felt my lungs well up with air. My mother always told me it was the only thing that helped her calm down in stressful situations, especially when she got into fights with my dad. "Then you're a spoiled rotten boy. Simple as that. Just being one makes you grosser than you already are."

"You got top marks on all your O.W.L.s." He smirked at me, those thin lips curved upward into a smug smile, while I stared on dumbstruck. Because, _seriously_. Couldn't he think of _anything _better? Then…

"If you think that's an insult, then you're stupider than you look."

The smirk faltered a little, and if he was ever going to win this verbal duel, he was just going to have to pick his head back up. We both didn't like to lose, not one bit, and to say I wasn't going down without a fight was a little more than an understatement.

I took his momentary pause to gain the advantage. "You can't fly a broomstick without crashing into something."

"You can't hold onto the quaffle for two seconds at a time."

"You're a sinister Slytherin."

"You're a bookworm Ravenclaw."

"You're extremely pale."

"You're… too, too… too colorful!"

There was a moment of silence.

And then I burst out laughing, doubling over with the giggles that were eager to pour out of my mouth. Seriously? He thought _colorful_ was an _insult_? Something to make me cower in fear and bow down to him? Admit defeat? Merlin, he really _was_ dumb!

But he honestly thought what he said was worthy, since he just stood there with a serious expression on his face, brow crinkled a little from trying to figure out why I was laughing, and looking down on me as if _I_ had lost.

"Colorful? _Seriously_? _You're_ not good at insults!" I choked out, my voice a little raspy from laughing, with a big grin on my face.

He started to look a little more worried as he answered, "Yes. You need… less color. It's… a bit enchanting, not normal. Wait – _stop_ laughing, _dammit_!"

But this just made me giggle again, because I could never take him seriously in this hilarious situation. Because, c'mon. I was _enchanting_? Those two words just didn't fit in the same sentence. Unless there was a 'not' between them.

"Sure, sure, sure, Malfoy," I said, turned on my heel, and started to walk away once I was undoubtedly crowned the winner of this battle. "_That's_ an insult. So… _insulting_."

I could hear him sputtering, trying to come up with a good enough excuse for why he had said that, but I kept heading down the corridor. Because, one, I was late for Charms. Two, this conversation was _so_ over.

And three? Hearing I was colorful from a certain Scorpius Malfoy was enough of a 'sorry' for me, if the butterflies in my stomach were enough of an indication.

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**A/N:** Please leave a review. It truly motivates me to write! :P


	16. Snake

**A/N:** Thanks for everything, you all rock! And, also, I'm baaack! Miss me? Haha, probably not. But, I'd like you to please not judge this chapter too harshly. The prompt was SO hard, when it shouldn't have been, and I really have no excuse. It's definitely my least favorite, but the ones I have coming up after this one are my favorites of all time, so I hope you will still stick around with this story after this cruddy chapter. Thanks, try to enjoy :)

**Disclaimer:** Don't own, nuh uh uh!

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_**.:Live to Love:.**_

**.x. **_**snake**_** .x.**

When you see a Slytherin, what do you think of?

Hogwarts student? Dressed in green? Probably wearing a sneer?

A snake is another possibility, seeing as the symbol of Slytherin is one of those long, fanged, sinister creatures. Maybe your imagination is a little wild, and you picture it's scratchy scaly body. You could see it with toxic venom pouring out of its wide mouth, ready to kill at any given moment. Or, maybe, you imagine it with large muscles, prepared to constrict and inflict a slow death instead.

Many girls in my year, like me, don't like snakes. At all. They shy away from them, thinking that they're the worst creatures on this earth, even though their wands could vanish the little monsters in a matter of seconds. I'm an exception, and would probably keep my cool and transfigure it upon seeing them, but still remain disgusted to no end.

I know Uncle Harry once told us of a story with a snake one time. Albus, Louis, and I practically begged him when we got older, since he was often very careful of telling his past to us, with little Lily Potter and my baby brother Hugo being easily scared.

But he relented one day, and eventually went on to tell us he could speak Parseltongue but didn't know so when he visited a Muggle zoo for his cousin's birthday at just ten years old. The snake he accidentally spoke to only wanted to go back to Brazil, his hometown. Not harm anyone or anything, just live somewhere else than the zoo.

That snake wasn't harmful. _That_ snake was peaceful.

But, c'mon. When you think of a Slytherin, do _you_ think of a nice reptile?

Because, think about that particular Hogwarts house on a whole. They have the worst reputation out of all of them. I've met plenty of Slytherins that have snapped at me harshly for not doing more than asking a question. Overall, with some of them having ancestors that were followers of a vanquished evil wizard, it's hard not to picture those ready-to-kill, hyped-up monsters in our minds.

Slytherins are intimating, just like certain slithering creatures.

People make the connection easy, and stay away from that house.

For me, along with the thought of snakes comes with the story Uncle Harry told us so many years ago. And, even though many people were terrified of the snake when his cousin ended up in the glass box, I always wonder about the person, zookeeper, who had to take care of that whole snake exhibit. How could they stand to be near the snakes? To feed them, to pick them up, to love them unconditionally?

What made them love the snakes so much and not want to run away, fearing their lives?

Now, there is a slam on the table, jumping me out of my thoughts. When I glance up from the essay I'm supposed to be writing, Scorpius Malfoy's gray gaze meets my eyes. He takes a seat across from me, reaches out with one hand, and takes mine in his own.

He smiles. And I smile back.

It is times like these when I find myself comparing me to a Muggle zookeeper of the snakes. Times like when Scorpius takes my hand and, despite the reputation and grudge I'm supposed to hold against him, I squeeze his back. Being with him is a feeling like no other, and then I know the secret of the zookeepers.

It's all about how they look at the snakes.

Their scaly body could be a strong protection from the outside world. Their venom is used to protect them from harmful others. And their constriction is definitely to hold them tight in an embrace.

People may be afraid of snakes, but I know the truth.

It's really what you make of them.

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**A/N:** Please review. I'd really appreciate it. Can we make it to 200? Thanks. :D


	17. Team

**A/N:** Thanks, everyone, for the reads and reviews! You all rock. Now, about this one… it's definitely one-shot length, haha. I'm quite proud of it. I've always thought telling the cousins would be more important than telling Ron and Hermione, so here's my take on it. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I had writing it, and laugh at least once! :D

**Disclaimer:** I do not own… or else we would have a little more info on the Next Gen?

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_**.:Live to Love:.**_

**.x. **_**team**_** .x.**

"Hey, uh, guys? I have something to tell you. Obviously. That's… um, why I called you here."

Seven different pairs of eyes stared at me with an expectant sparkle. Although only five were confused and flicking back from me to Scorpius and back again. Two were knowledgeable and just waiting patiently for me to break the news.

I felt Scorpius squeeze my hand next to me, and I squeezed back. He was right, like he always was. I'd make it through this easily. IT was just another step in our relationship that I needed to have known in my family.

Of course, it was Lily who spoke first.

"Oh, my frickin' _Merlin_!" she exclaimed, clapping her hands over her mouth and widening her eyes. "You're pregnant, aren't you? You didn't use the charm? Or the potion, did you? _God_, Rosie, you're such an_ idiot_!"

Albus and Louis, the only ones in on my confession, wiped their hands over their faces in embarrassment at the stupidity of our cousin. "C'mon, Lily. Could you be denser?" Roxanne Weasley said, shoving her little cousin on the side. Lily only still stared at me with that shocked expression.

Meanwhile, James only laughed and said, "Lils, c'mon. Rose isn't pregnant. If she was, word would be around school, and Malfoy would be deader than Madam Pomfrey's hair."

I scowled. Threats to him were taken very seriously to me, and vice versa with him.

"So, what is it, then? If you're not pregnant, like everyone said," Lucy asked from the end of the couch my cousins were sitting on. The sweet thing. She never spoke out of turn, but was incredibly quiet and shy, which appeared to some people as if she was unfriendly.

"Oh, just get on with it, Rose!" my annoying brother Hugo said, rolling his eyes and crossing his arms over his chest.

I glared at Hugo, but nevertheless took one deep breath to steady myself, and said, "Meet my new… boyfriend, Scorpius Malfoy."

I was met with five shocked stares, all directed towards the pale blonde figure standing by my side. I turned my head to look at him, and he smiled back in a way that made my insides flutter, but it didn't lessen the nerves of what my cousins would think, me dating Draco Malfoy's son, their father or uncle's arch nemesis, besides the old Dark Lord himself.

"Oh. My. God," Lily whispered in awe. I knew she'd be first to respond. She always was. "You're… you're… you're _dating_ Scorpius Malfoy?"

I nodded my head once.

And rest of the words out of her mouth were a total blur.

"Oh – got – tell – friends – Hogwarts – to know!" was all I caught before she jumped out of her seat and dashed towards the portrait hole.

However, thank Merlin for Albus and Louis, _the_ two best friends a person could have in the entire universe. They caught her, each one arm, in the knick of time, just as she was about to leap out of the Gryffindor common room. Thankfully, they pushed her back down onto the couch and guarded each side to make sure she wouldn't move. Lily just sulked in defeat.

"So… it's Scorpius, then?" Roxanne asked, grinning ear to ear from her spot on the single-seat chair by the fire. "Scorpius _Malfoy_."

I nodded confidently, trying to tell myself that if I could get through the initial telling with my cousins, I could get through the conversation with my parents. I had a plan all worked out to involve my dearest cousins in order to help me. If they agreed, convincing my parents Scorpius was okay to date would be a breeze.

But it didn't seem like they'd help, if their shocked expressions were enough of an indication. Especially when James stepped up to the plate.

"You're dating a Malfoy?" he said, and then started laughing. Hard. Just letting the peals bubble out of his mouth and drown us all in his ugly tone. Hugo joined in too, the little copycat. "Oh, that's rich! Just rich! Now, tell me. How did Uncle Ron take it?"

I looked down at my feet, not giving him – or Hugo, in any case – the satisfaction of a shake of the head. But my cousins were quick-witted and fast. They came to the conclusion in a matter of half a second.

At least, Lily did.

"You didn't tell Uncle Ron and Aunt 'Mione yet?" she shrieked, and Louis, obviously tired of her rapid outbursts in his left ear, clapped one hand over her mouth and smiled apologetically at me.

James only started to laugh again. "Oh no, oh no. Don't get me involved in this." He lifted his hands up into a 'back-off' position. "I'm not going to face his wrath. I didn't even do anything this time! If you're dating a Malfoy – especially this one – it's your problem."

I clasped my hands together and looked across the mixture of emotions plastered on my cousins' faces. "Please. You guys have to help me."

I saw Hugo shake his head from the corner of my left eye, but kept going on anyway. "Look. If one of you were dating someone your parents didn't like due to some silly grudge held way back when in the olden days, what would you do? Just face them by yourself? With no help from the people you love the most?"

Scorpius nudged my side to go on. He probably thought I was on a roll.

"All I need is witnesses. To show that he's not a bad person. To prove that Scorpius is really sweet, and I really, really like him. Just to get them to listen and not cast '_Avada Kedavra_' the second they see me with him."

I saw Lucy give one nod of her head, eyes bowed to the ground. Her parents were probably the only ones stricter than mine when it came to her and her sister Molly's personal life. "Yes," she said in a small voice.

But Hugo only rolled his eyes. And he was supposed to be my brother, for Merlin's sake! "None of us have that problem, because the only date they wouldn't like is Scorpius Malfoy."

I gritted my teeth to keep from hexing my little brother into oblivion.

But, suddenly, there seemed to be a bright light of hope in the corner of my eyes, facing where…

"I'm with you, Rosie," Roxanne said, standing up to take a position beside Scorpius and me. I smiled at her, and she grinned back and tossed her long black hair behind her head. "I ask for my cousin, who's with us?"

"I am." Lucy stood up and her tiny body, at least two heads short of me, joined us. "I'm with Rose."

Albus grinned. "And of _course_ I am. Lou too."

To reinforce the point, Louis eagerly nodded and grinned. They both exchanged a high-five and gave our little group a thumbs-up. Honestly, thank Merlin for two great friends such as them. You just can't get them anywhere else.

James and Hugo sat there on the Gryffindor couch, grumbling and exchanging shifty looks at our group. Lily was still pouting from her escape-gone-awry.

"Please?" I pleaded one last time, my lower lip jutting out.

"Oh, fine," Lily said, throwing her hands up in the air and staring at the carpet in an annoyed expression. "But I'm still spreading the gossip."

All it took was the seven of us against those two to make James cave in like a child with a sweet tooth who was offered candy. "Fine. Fine then."

Hugo quickly agreed afterwards, and then they both stood up to join us. However, instead of going to stand at the end of the line with Lily, James went right up into Scorpius's surprised face, pointing one angry finger at his nose.

"Listen, Malfoy. You see all of us? Weasleys, Potters, whatever? We're a team. That's right. A whole, complete team. Don't mess with our Rosie, because we don't need any more players. Got it?"

Scorpius just nodded his head jerkily, afraid to say anything lest James, the big scary seventh year, _Avada_ his butt on the spot. I drew back my hand, swung it forward, and brought it right on James's cheek.

A big, fat slap.

"Don't talk to him that way," I hissed, and poked him with my finger to get him back into line. James let out a grunt of protest, but eventually, he crossed his arms and went to sulk with Hugo.

Roxanne raised one hand like she was in class, and asked, "When are we telling Uncle Ron?"

I shrugged. "Whenever I have enough support from you guys."

"In that case, I'll do it now!" Lily cried. She broke free from the line and started to jump over the couch, but tripped and collapsed on the cushions. Albus and Louis rolled their eyes and dragged her back into line.

At this rate, we were going to have a _lot_ of work to do.

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**A/N:** Please review! I'd love to hear what you think! :)


	18. Ivy

**A/N:** Thanks for the reads and reviews. You're all awesome! But, I don't like this one too much, and almost forgot to update tonight (sorry!). But anyway, here it is. I'm sorry these have been getting progressively worse. School has just started up, and this semester is killer already, and it's only been two days. Joy. Anyway, I hope you like this one more than I do :)

**Disclaimer:** Do… not… own… clear?

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_**.:Live to Love:.**_

**.x. **_**ivy**_** .x.**

"Hey! Hey, you!"

Scorpius Malfoy looked up from the table where he was reading his Potions book. It was his least favorite subject out of all the ones he was taking at Hogwarts, contrary to his forte, Herbology. He just managed to scrape out barely an 'E' on the last potion, but that was only when he studied without any interruptions and was paired with someone.

And that someone was the someone who was standing across from him. A certain Rose Weasley.

"What?" he asked, curious in his twelve-year-old voice. Her eyes were alit with a bright hopefulness.

She gestured with her hand for him to follow her and said, "C'mon. I have something to show you." And then she sped off in the opposite direction, leaving Scorpius to stand up, push in his chair curiously back into the table, and trail after her.

They weren't exactly friends, but occasionally sat together in the corner of the library to do homework or study. He would sit on one side with his ink and parchment and books, she on the other with hers. A silent agreement, since most of the other tables were taken by bossy older years that looked like they could eat Scorpius. But there was nothing to worry about because, without fail, Rose would be sitting at their table when he got there.

But, today, she hadn't been. And Scorpius was pretty sure he was about to find out why.

When he wrenched open the door of the library and peered down the corridor, her long mane of red curls was just visible turning a corner to the right. He dashed after her, following in a hot pursuit. When Scorpius was given a challenge, he pursued it until he died, even if it was just to follow someone whom was not only an acquaintance, but competition and challenger too.

The next corridor was long and straight, stretching down to greet a wide and heavy oak door, which Scoprius knew led to the Hogwarts grounds. Rose was just up ahead a few feet, leisurely strolling and occasionally glancing over her shoulder to check if he was following. He caught up to her with his long-legged strides.

"What do you have to show me?" he asked, always the curious person.

She smiled a toothy grin and said, "You'll see. Just follow me, and you'll see." At that, she took off down the corridor again, sprinting this time instead of walking. Noticing this, he quickly picked up his pace to avoid losing sight of her.

Rose sneaked outside the doors to the grounds, and Scorpius followed, making sure to close the door completely as to not let any cold air in the warm castle. It was currently a particularly chilly winter, which meant that any heat shouldn't be spoiled by frost. Hogwarts was so toasty these days that everyone was superstitious of leaving the doors or windows open even a crack.

When the first stab of bone-chilling cold air hit him, Rose was already rounding the corner of the castle, the soft crunch of dead grass trailing in her wake. Scorpius wrapped his arms around himself and followed. His eyes widened in surprise when he saw Rose kneeled over the side of the castle in front of something he couldn't see.

He reached her spot and crouched down next to her. "What is it?" he said.

Rose turned her head to him and smiled. "It's ivy," she said, reaching out with a finger to trail the green plant a few feet up the hard stone of the castle wall.

"In the winter?" he asked, confused. Sure, ivy grew in the most desolate of places during the spring, and practically crawled up the castle in summer, even in the fall. But the dead of winter, January? Scorpius couldn't remember ever seeing ivy. Not even a sprout of it.

Rose dropped her hand and shivered a little from the whipping wind. "I knew you liked Herbology, so I thought you might like this. I mean, you always read those Herbology books…"

Scorpius smiled. "Yes, I love Herbology. Thanks for showing me. Although, it is quite odd it's growing at this time of year."

She eagerly nodded. "It's a miracle," she whispered. "I read all the Herbology books in the library to find an explanation, but all of them said that ivy didn't grow this time of year. It has to be…"

"Magic," Scorpius whispered. Rose nodded, embarrassed, and ducked her head, dainty red blush painting her cheeks a pretty color. One that greatly reminded him of the petals of the flower she was named after. He couldn't stop staring at her – the pink of her nose, the curliness of her hair, and, of course, the beautiful blush.

And, suddenly, the ivy wasn't all that special anymore.

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**A/N:** Please leave a review. It motivates me to write!


	19. Unicorn

**A/N:** Thanks for the reviews, even though it's the least I've ever received for a chapter. I'm really grateful for any and all reviews. :) This one… umm, hmm. Kinda random, but then again, isn't the prompt hard? Ah well. I really like writing James, so I think that's what happened, haha. Okay, happy reading! :D

**Disclaimer:** I do not own, or else… I'd be really rich. Yes, really, really rich! And have a library full of books that I've never read before, haha.

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_**.:Live to Love:.**_

**.x. **_**unicorn**_** .x.**

"Um, Professor, mind if I ask _why_ am I with Rose Weasley? I'd much rather be in the forest with you."

Turning my head to face the arrogant prick, I gave him my very rightfully titled 'death glare'. It seemed I was the only person who caught the double meaning of this words. He just smirked back at me. Which, I might add, was completely unfair and unjustified. Wasn't _he_ the one who got me into this situation, anyway?

"Now, now, Mr. Malfoy," Professor Griffith scolded, pulling his cloak tighter around him and wagging one long finger at Scorpius. "What's wrong with Miss Weasley?"

"That's right. What's wrong with me?" I said to him in the most innocent voice I could manage, smiling the sweetest smile I could muster. He just rolled his eyes, only fueling my fire.

"But, c'mon, Griffith," James said. He was also booked for this particular detention, which required collecting spare spider venom from parts of the Forbidden Forest, even though he was a year older. Of course, James always spoke out of turn in class – or hexed another student, or played a prank, or blew something up… you get my point – and also had to spend time with Professor Griffith on this dusky night.

And why exactly were Scorpius and I in detention, you ask? Oh, for nothing much. Just he just got extremely exasperated at me and the 'correct directions', and we accidentally exploded a cauldron. Now, we were in full-out war mode, returning back to passing snide gestures and remarks at each other like first years, angry beyond belief.

"Do you mind if I call you Griffith? Good," James said, even though the Professor protested with a furious expression on his face. "Listen, Griffith. Rose is a girl, and Scorpius is a boy. Oh, and they pretty much hate each other right now, and, as Rose's blood-related cousin, as much as I wish I wasn't sometimes, but that's another story for another day, I demand that she be with me when we split up to get this disgusting spider spit – "

"James, shut up," I muttered, if the way Professor Griffith was glaring at him was any indication.

The Professor quickly regained his composure and said, "Mr. Malfoy, Miss Weasley, why don't you run head? Here is your vial – careful, don't drop it. Mr. Potter here and I have to take care of some business."

James sent me one cocky grin before Scorpius pulled on my arm eagerly, dragging me directly into the Forbidden Forest where the shadows engulfed us and I was blind to everything in front of me except my partner. We could hear a loud "ow!" from James, accompanied by a long string of protests that the thick trees tuned out for us easily.

"Poor guy, huh?" Scorpius said, grinning.

I only pulled my arm out of his grasp and crossed my arms over my chest. "I'm still mad at you, if you forgot_ that_ so easily. I wouldn't be surprised, with your small mental capacity."

Scorpius only rolled his eyes and fought his way further into the forest, leaving me to follow. I never liked being the one to trail, always lead. But, this time, I didn't want to give myself another reason to lose my temper, blow up at him, and cause us to get another detention that my mother would surely howl about – literally.

"So, where do we start?" I said in a voice devoid of all emotion.

He shrugged. "Professor Griffith and your cousin are probably taking the southeast route, so we'll go northwest."

"Which would be?"

Scorpius sighed loudly, pulled out his wand, and muttered an incantation that showed the direction of north, which was right in front of us. He pocketed it, held the vial tightly in his hand, and said, "Obviously, this way."

I grunted in agreement.

We continued walking in silence, not wanting to discuss anything. He probably figured I was a ticking time bomb, reading to blow up at the slightest movement. Which was probably true. OWLs were coming up, and I was seriously stressed with all the extra studying I had to add to my load, which probably led to me being annoying in Potions – not like I'd admit it. C'mon, anyone would be like that… right?

Anyone except Scorpius, who already studied so much that he knew every spell and how to perform it perfectly and practically never got stressed.

I scowled. Why did he have to be _so_ perfect?

But wasn't that what we fought about yesterday, after the cauldron blew up and he was done yelling?

… Who knew anymore?

"Do you see any?" Scorpius asked, checking under leaves for the spider venom. As if we would find any. I knew Professor Griffith only sent us on this hunt because he had no idea what to do with us and wanted to scare the stuffing out of James. It was practically known to the whole school – okay, only us cousins – that he hated unknown monsters and dark places. Both of them together? Guaranteed freak-out.

I shook my head. Then, realizing it was too dark for him to see, said, "Nope. None."

Oh, and did I forget to mention the venom was a _clear_ color?

There was a rustling noise in the bushes – not a big deal to me, but, obviously, it was to Scorpius. He stopped directly in his path, took out his wand, and hissed, "Did you hear that?"

I rolled my eyes and said, "Yes. Is Scorpius Malfoy scared of the big, bad birdies?"

He turned back and scowled at me – I think it was a scowl, anyway, who could see anything in this dark? – and he said, "Of course it's not a bird. C'mon, Rose. Can a bird make that much of a ruckus?"

"Yes," I said, sticking to my story, but then a flash of white caught my vision. And, let me tell you, it wasn't Scorpius's hair. Far from it.

Standing over his shoulder was a full-grown unicorn, majestic and stately with a pure white coat. The horn on its head twisted and swirled in a glittering silver pattern that was so impossible to imagine that you'd think it must've been done by a wizard.

I froze in my tracks, struck by this magnificent creature. Uncle Harry had told us Lord Voldemort had killed many unicorns in the Forbidden Forest, and they were rare to begin with. But, obviously he had missed one…

Scorpius moved forward one step, and the unicorn eyed him warily, hooves at the ready to dart off at any moment. The stupid git was going to make it run away!

"I hope it eats you," I muttered.

He laughed softly but surely, keeping his eyes on the single beauty of the forest. Luckily, the unicorn only snorted and tossed its long silky mane to the other side of its neck.

I took a few steps to be directly next to Scorpius, and whispered, "It's so beautiful. The most beautiful thing in this forest."

I must've spoken too loudly because at that moment, the creature sprinted off in the opposite direction, its hooves pounding the ground rhythmically in time with the beat of my heart. We watched its retreating back, a loss at words to describe what we had just witnessed.

Scorpius's head turned towards me and he said quietly, "I beg to differ."

Good thing it was dark in the forest.

That way, he couldn't see me blush furiously.

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**A/N:** Please review. I appreciate it. Thanks! :P


	20. Reunion

**A/N:** THANKS EVERYONE! I appreciate everything. :) Also, I'm quite proud of this one. It is my first attempt at writing in second person point of view. Which is actually easier than it sounds though, haha. So I hope you like it, and you might as well now prepare for the angst and drama. :)

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Harry Potter… I'd said it 20 times before, haven't it?

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_**.:Live to Love:.**_

**.x. **_**reunion**_** .x.**

You're successful, but something is missing.

You don't think you know what it is. Because you have a beautiful house, a beautiful husband, and two beautiful children that you love with all your heart. You only think, "How could my life get any better than this?" and live it like you've done for the past five years, maybe more.

But of course, when you hear _he_ got a job at the Ministry of Magic, you can't stop your heart from beating furiously in your chest.

You can't think of a reason why, either. You've been fine without him for all these years, so why should it make a difference now? Your best friends, which consist of – who else? – your cousins, constantly try to get you to talk about what happened between you two all those years back on the last day of the seventh year of Hogwarts.

But you only close your mouth tight and refuse to answer.

And now, it puzzles you. Because you have everything that you want, but, suddenly, with the mention of him, it feels as if a certain part of your heart is gone. Poof. Not there. And you storm over to Albus's house and demand to know why he kept bringing him up during the past years, convinced that it was he who made this emptiness appear in you.

But Albus says that it's not his fault. He says you've loved Scorpius all this time, but was too stubborn to admit it. And, now that he's back in your life, he's making an impact on you, shattering that perfection you were positive you had.

You storm off in a huff, determined not to let him see you at his new job at the Ministry.

But you do anyway. He takes the southwest fireplace home, and you always manage to see him there, waiting in line to floo. Or just a fleeting glance in the middle of rush hour traffic in the corridors. And every time, you hope to see his eyes on you, assuring you that everything is cool between you two, and that the piece of your heart will come back if you catch those gray on your blue.

But, each glance, his face is set straight on his destination: forward, not behind. No eye contact. And it annoys the hell out of you, because _why_ can't he just recognize you? Face the past, face _you_, even though you won't yourself?

You try another tactic, anything to get rid of that feeling of emptiness. You offer to deliver files to his office, purposely run into him in the elevator – all places that he would be sure to notice you. But he never looks up, never utters a word, never glances to the left or right. It's just that blank, gray stare on the future. And you don't know what to do.

So you corner him one day. You purposely strut up to him during the big hustle bustle of morning travel in the Ministry of Magic building and beat down the rolls of parchment he's carrying. Eventually, after he's done collecting his supplies – with none of your help, of course – he glances up at you with a stare that pierces your heart and says, "Do you want something?"

That voice, hearing it after all these passed years in this short reunion, is doing strange things to you. Your heart speeds up, your mouth gets dry, and you stutter when you answer, "Y-yes. Why w-won't you look at me? Wh-why?"

He visually relaxes, the strain in his shoulders disappearing, as if the question you asked him was the easiest one in the world. The coldness and distance is still there as he answers, "Your gaze is too broken."

And he pushes past you with one cold stare, leaving you standing there stupidly as people rush past you.

What did he mean? You aren't broken. You have a house, a husband, and two kids who are growing up faster than you can believe. The definition of broken means to damage something so that it separates into pieces. Your gaze isn't broken. _You're_ not broken. No, not broken.

But, when you get home at night and your husband kisses you quickly on the cheek and your kids run up to you and you pat their black hair – the color of your husband's – and you look around the house and it's perfect as always, you finally know what he meant.

Where is the element of danger? Where is that feeling of butterflies? The sensation you get when you are hopelessly in love? The one where you can't wait for the next day and don't want to go to sleep, because reality you're living is better than your dreams?

You haven't had that in the past five years.

And then you finally realize how broken you really are.

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**A/N: **I'd like it a lot if you were to review. Thanks! :D


	21. Injury

**A/N:** Hey all. Thanks for reviews! They mean so much to me. Also, I think I have to kick down the updates for this story a little… school has gotten WAY hectic (you wouldn't believe) and I literally spent all of this weekend working on it and finally found a small amount of time for fanfiction. Woo hoo! Anyway, enjoy! :D

**Discalaimer:** … Do I really have to say it?

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_**.:Live to Love:.**_

**.x. **_**injury**_** .x.**

"Quidditch is great, isn't it?"

Louis looked at me with a peculiar set to his eyebrows, as if that statement was the dumbest in the world, and said, "Um, of course. That's why we're on the team?"

"Right," I said, sighing and looking up at the players flying through the air, but keeping my eyes on one particular Slytherin seeker. Louis followed my gaze, rolled his eyes, and crossed his arms.

"I have a feeling there's a different reason you like Quidditch," he said, a smile playing on his lips.

I rolled my eyes and mock-punched him on the arm. "You're crazy. Hey, look at it this way. If I only liked Scorpius, then I'd spend my whole time watching him in the stands and not beating his butt by putting the quaffle through goalposts, all right?"

Louis shrugged his shoulders. We were in the stands of the Slytherin and Gryffindor Quidditch match. The game had been already going on for an hour or so, and both of the seekers were a little sluggish on catching the snitch. Of course, it wasn't the best of days, either. The wind was whipping, and the sky was threatening a downpour of rain, making a very exhausting game to sit through. Louis and I were quite bored and talking about the randomest of things now.

"Yeah," Louis said, "but you do that _while _watching him. Besides, aren't we supposed to be cheering for Albus and Roxanne, not your boyfriend?"

"I can cheer for both," I said in a small, unsure voice.

Louis laughed, putting one hand on my back sympathetically. "Gryffindor and Slytherin are worst enemies, Rose. How can you expect to cheer for them both?"

"Make a poster with a lion eating a snake? … Oh, wait, that idea sucks, because it makes Scorpius seem like a loser… umm…"

He smiled sympathetically. "I bet Al and Roxy would like it."

"Damn right," I muttered. "Umm… how about… I color my scarf red, gold, green, and silver? They are complementary colors, you know."

Louis's eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "Complementary what?"

I rolled my eyes at his stupidity. Honestly, didn't he know his colors? Taken a smidgen of art or retained anything in Muggle Studies? "Look. On the color wheel, red is directly across from green, which makes them complement each other, and gold is – "

"Rose, look out!"

At that, I ducked down in my seat, hiding my head with my hands over my ears, and squeezing my eyes tightly shut. After a good thirty seconds of safety, I slowly raised my head, only to hear gasps around me and whispers of, "Is he okay?" "What's wrong?" "Did he just save her life?" Every person in the stands was peering over the wooden edge, except for Louis, who was staring at me with wide eyes.

"Louis!" I gasped, utterly confused, turning to him for information. "What's wrong? What's going on? Was it you who screamed?"

He just shook his head frantically, and pointed one finger to the crowd of people peering over the stands and the Quidditch players descending to the grassy ground. "A bludger, it was headed for you, and he, he flew in front of you to try and stop it, and it was literally this close, if you hadn't of ducked – "

"Who?" I asked breathlessly. "Who took the blow?"

"Scorpius Malfoy!"

I was up on my feet in two seconds, fighting my way through the spectators at the end of the row, and glancing over the edge. Panic started to worm its way into my stomach, a frantic and jumpy feeling. Was he hurt? Was it bad? What the _hell_ was happening?

"Scorpius, Scorpius, Scorpius," I kept muttering under my breath, even though it seemed my lungs were closing up and I couldn't talk or breathe. People parted for me, and when I leaned over the edge, the sight stole my breath.

Scorpius, lying on the ground, eyes closed, bloody.

Madam Pomfrey was racing across the field along with the Quiddtich instructor Professor Melina, but they couldn't seem to go fast enough. Everything seemed to slow. The motion around me. The whipping wind. The cries and questions of curious people. The drops of rain falling from the sky.

I felt a hand on my back ever so slightly.

"He – he – saved my – he – put himself – he did that – saved my life," I finally stuttered to Louis, still in complete shock, and pretty darn close to tears.

All it took was one nod from my faithful friend to have me dashing down the stands and out onto the pitch.

Madam Pomfrey reached him first, and he was already on a stretcher by the time I reached them. I was in a full-out sprint to him, but there was a hand gripping my robes, holding me back, before I was even within ten feet.

"Rosie," Roxanne's voice hissed in my ear, "they can take care of him. Just follow to the hospital wing. Don't do anything stupid, okay?"

"B-but, it's Scorpius, and I'm me, and…" I stupidly trailed off.

I could almost see Roxanne roll her eyes through the back of my head. "Right. I know. But wait your turn. They'll fix him up, all right? Then you can go see him."

"He's injured, Roxy!" I screamed in hysterics, turning around to face her. Her blue eyes widened in surprise, and she took a step back with her hands in a surrender position.

"I know, Rose," she said, phrasing her words carefully, "but let's let the professionals handle this one."

And so, I trudged back to the Ravenclaw common room with Louis by my side, feeling guilt well up in my chest and tears slip down my cheeks in worrying strides, and we sat on a couch. Louis's hand rubbed soothing circles in my back, while I just quietly sobbed.

They were keeping me from him. I didn't know if he was all right. I didn't know if he would ever _be_ all right. Taking that bludger for me was the stupidest thing anyone could do, but he did it for me. He was injured, but there was nothing I could do.

I wanted to help.

"I'm going down," I said in a hoarse voice, and Louis didn't try to stop me.

Once I reached the hospital wing, I burst through the doors and scanned the beds for my boyfriend. He was in one at the back corner, with Madam Pomfrey running around with spoons and cups and bandages, taking care of him. When he saw me, he grinned and adjusted the bandages around his head and arm.

Relief spread throughout my body in long waves that seemed to pull me under.

He was _alive_. He was _okay_!

I rushed over to his beside and kissed him full on the mouth. He responded with the same eagerness, no weariness or tiredness I thought he would have after a head injury. When we pulled apart, I found that tears were streaming down my face and onto his arm bandage. I clasped my hand around his and held on as if my life was in danger – _again_.

"Scorpius," I whispered desperately, "I – I ducked, but I didn't know a bludger was after me! You shouldn't have taken that hit for me, I'd rather it be me than you, and I was worried sick, but Roxy told me to wait, and now I'm here, and – "

Scorpius laughed. It was a little weak, but still as lovely as ever. Thankfully, the blood was cleaned up, so his face was a perfect pale once again. "Rose, slow down! I'm fine. Just a little scratch."

I rolled my eyes, mostly out of frustration, and lightly stroked his bad arm. "I'm glad you're okay. But don't take any more bludgers for me."

"I can't promise that."

"It wasn't a suggestion. It was an order."

He laughed, reaching over with his good arm to bring me in for another light kiss, and I felt as if I were flying when his lips met mine. The lips I thought I'd never feel again.

Everything was okay.

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**A/N:** Please review? 0:)


	22. Warm

**A/N:** I feel guilty about not updating. I'm so sorry! But I felt that I needed to update today, because I learned that Rose was added to the Harry Potter character list today! YAY! Everyone, go change your R/S stories, and add Rose up with Scorpius!

On another side note: I'm trying my best to keep up with updates. Seriously, homework is slamming me. I actually found only a small break in between it to post this. So… I just want to let you all know I'm trying. Now, on with the update!

**Disclaimer:** Do not own… would I have to post this on this website if I did?

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_**.:Live to Love:.**_

**.x. **_**warm**_** .x.**

Have you ever gotten that feeling around a certain someone?

You know what I mean. The one that wells up until you feel like you're going to explode into a million tiny pieces. The one that gets under your skin and stays there, begging to break free. The one that you can't control that makes you feel powerless, but love it all the same.

Teddy Lupin gave that feeling to me.

At least, I thought he did.

When I was a little kid, the thing I vividly remember is the weekends when Dad and Uncle Harry would gather up me and Albus and floo us over to Shell Cottage, trunks lugging behind in our wake. We would spend a weekend or two there, and sometimes Mum and Aunt Ginny would come, and we would all stay in one of the many guest rooms that wasn't occupied. It was my favorite vacation – even beating out the Chudley Cannons Quidditch finals – for two reasons.

One, I usually got to see Uncle Bill, Aunt Fleur, and my cousins. Victoire was like an idol to me, and we played dress-up until I was old enough to realize that frilly skirts and neat blouses were 'just not my thing'. Dominique would annoy us to play Quidditch until we finally relented. And Louis would run around with Al, and I would join them the days Victoire wasn't there.

But, two, he was there.

I guess it started with an admiration from afar. Because Teddy was amazing, with his beautiful looks and charming personality, despite being eight years older than me. Plus, he was Victoire's best friend. So, naturally, we spent a lot of time together, even if I felt like a third wheel most of the time.

When he would pat my head, ruffle my hair, or give me a hug at the end of the summer, my stomach would fill with quick and fluttering butterflies. They bounced around, a pleasant and warm feeling that I was ninety-nine percent sure had to do with the chemistry between us.

Teddy Lupin made me feel warm. There was no doubt about it.

Although, he was nothing compared to what I experienced later on in life.

Enter Hogwarts years. Scorpius Malfoy, the boy my father pointed out at platform nine and three quarters that fateful day, became my friend. But it wasn't a smooth sailing journey like with Teddy. We laughed, we cried – okay, maybe _I_ was the only one that cried – and we fought. But, unlike my relationship with Teddy, I didn't recognize the feelings between us.

Not until I was with him, that is.

When he first caressed my cheek, warmth similar to Teddy's touch fluttered under my skin, blood rushing to form a blush – a feeling I was all too familiar with. At that point, I couldn't deny that I liked Scorpius any longer. The comparison to my past feelings for Teddy was too similar. It was around then that I admitted defeat and just asked him out, not knowing what else to do.

After our first date, he kissed me outside of the Three Broomsticks. That was when the warmth I was sure I would experience turned into something completely different. It started at my feet, a simmering feeling, and started to work it's way up my body, until it reached my face at a fierce boil, and I was sure I would crumple from the pressure. One last shot of heat throughout my body, and then he pulled away too soon, leaving only an electric feeling at every nerve.

It was then that I realized Scorpius Malfoy didn't make me feel warm like Teddy Lupin did.

He made me feel lightning bolt _hot_.

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**A/N:** Please, please, please review! :D


	23. Eagle

**A/N:** I am so sorry! I totally have not updated in, like, forever. I'm really sorry. It's kind of funny, though. None of my favorite stories have been updated in a long time, too. Is it just me, or is fanfiction on a halt for everyone?

Anyway, I think my main excuse was this hard prompt. I mean… how do you incorporate 'eagle' into Hogwarts? I don't know. So, I am sorry for this stupid drabble. I've re-written it like four times and I can't get it right. The next couple ones I have written I really like, so please excuse this. I'm sorry again, and I hope you like this one more than I do. :P

**Disclaimer:** Do not own… I saw this really great disclaimer the other day, although I forget what it was. Hmm. Gotta go find it and use it!

* * *

_**.:Live to Love:.**_

**.x. **_**eagle **_**.x.**

She flies differently than her teammates.

He watches her dip and turn, broomstick slicing through the air, her hair billowing out behind her in a long red carpet. The curves are handled with ease, even the ones that cut close to the stands, in which she could easily misjudge the distance and ram right into.

She is a Ravenclaw, and fliers from that house are sharp, quick-witted, and fast. They tear through the air silently like a raven and dart after their prey – the quaffle, bludger, snitch – as soon as they catch sight of it. They bring their intelligence to the pitch, something that the other houses seem to lack.

And yet, even though she isn't one, Gryffindors fly with bravery and boldness. Try new strategies at practice, during games, see if they can complete them. They aren't the speediest or the smartest, but they fly with a courage that no one can deny. The Gryffindors hold their head high, and have a very good reason to.

But she flies like both of those houses.

He leans his elbows on his knees and watches the Ravenclaw Quidditch team soar around the pitch. Good thing he had quit the Slytherin team this year, or he would never have gotten the opportunity to watch her fly. There is always something casual about their games with her cousins; she doesn't seem to take it seriously at all. He has never really seen her fly with purpose before.

And now, he sees her for how she really flies.

He knows he shouldn't be calling for her during practice, but yet, he stands up and yells, "Rose!" from his position on the sidelines of the pitch. At the call of her name, she spots his pale-blond figure on the side with an eager look in his eyes and flies to him.

"I'm so sorry," she says and quickly glances back to make sure she is not forgotten on her team. "I know how we were supposed to go to Hogsmeade today, and I'll try to get let off early if I can. I'm sorry I'm making you wait like this – "

"It's okay." He smiles.

She smiles back. "Good. So, if you didn't call me here to yell at me, what do you want?"

"You fly like an eagle."

Her eyebrows furrow in confusion and she pants heavily from the slight workout she has received at practice. "What? What d'you mean by that?"

His throat freezes up. What did he just say? That she flies like an _eagle_? He shakes his head, laughs at the absurdity of his out-loud thinking. He obviously wasn't in control of his tongue today. To save himself, he starts to explain. "Well, I mean, I've seen eagles fly, and – "

"Rose! Are you coming or not?" yells a Ravenclaw teammate, her cousin, from the pitch. "We need to start our next drill. Hurry up!"

She gives him a sympathetic look and says, "I'm sorry, but I've got to go, okay? You can tell me later."

He nods his head. "See you."

And he watches her as she darts back into the crowd of Ravenclaw teammates. Somebody tosses her a quaffle, and she catches it with one hand and swerves toward the goalpost. She doesn't even break a sweat as she puts it through the center hoop, easily dismissing the keeper.

But he knows what he said before was true. She does fly like an eagle. With the speed, grace, boldness, stateliness, posture, wit, sharpness, exactness…

Yes. That's how she flies.

It's just another newfound thing he loves her for.

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**A/N:** Please review? :D


	24. Forest

**A/N:** -hits self with a large book- I. Am. So. Sorry. For. Not. Updating. Seriously, I apologize with all my heart. I was just swamped with schoolwork, and then there were midterms, and then I started writing a novel for November (NaNoWriMo), and I feel really guilty, so I finished this up for you guys and decided to post it. It's actually my longest one yet, like 1,800 words or something. Wow!

Side note: what's everyone think of the new FanFiction layout? I think it's pretty cool myself. :)

Okay, so enjoy, and I'm sorry once again!

**Disclaimer:** I don't own the Harry Potter series. :(

* * *

_**.:Live to Love:.**_

**.x. **_**forest**_** .x.**

"Jeez, Al, you're such a baby."

I folded my arms across my chest and glared at James Potter. For someone who was supposed to be as noble and gracious as the famous Harry Potter, he sure acted like a huge prat. "I think it's a dumb idea, but that doesn't mean that I'm a baby too, does it?"

James snorted and twirled his wand around his fingers. "You're all babies anyway, under the great James."

One pale hand reached out to knock James on the head. He stumbled backwards, and Albus let out a huge laugh. "Knock it out. If I remember correctly, you are the one who's still the baby while I'm around."

We were all outside on the grounds during free period, crowded around the edge of the Forbidden Forest, only us cousins. James was trying to persuade us to 'unleash the magical wonders of the forest' by 'adventuring into the dark abyss that we have been told not to discover'. James had sucked Al, Roxanne, Louis and me into it, but it seemed half of us were having second thoughts.

It wasn't that I was scared. It was just that I'd rather not go through a forest with my unreliable cousin James leading the way.

"Yeah, Dom, but you don't count," James said, pushing a smiling Dominique away from him. "You're graduating this year."

"I'm oldest in this circle of cousins, or whatever, and I say that what you're doing is so incredibly dumb I can even explain."

"Like you ever went into the Forbidden Forest when you were a fourth year."

"I did," Dominique said. "It wasn't that scary for me, but we all know by this stunt, you're trying to hid your closet fear of creatures that everyone knows about."

We all started sniggering behind our palms, grinning like maniacs. We all knew why James was bringing us out here in the first place: he wanted to prove that he was no baby, that he could handle being in the dark, scary forest all alone. And, by the fact that he was bringing us, he wanted witnesses.

"Just shut up, Dom," James retorted, turning around from her and facing the forest. "There's a Herbology class over there and I'm not getting caught bringing these third years into the forest. You can't stop me."

Dominique's face broke out into an evil smile – one that we had learned to fear over the years in the safety of our health – and strolled around the fuming James. "So, should I wait out here at the rim of the forest, or in the heart for when you start crying your eyes out that you're lost?"

I almost defended him. Almost. But then I remembered how much James had pushed us little cousins around all the time, and Dominique was the only one who would help us. She seemed barely afraid of anything. And the elbow and snigger from Albus was enough to convince me to stay out of it, anyway.

"Get out of here," James grunted, and then turned back to face us. The treetops were looming up behind him, looking like they'd rather eat us than unleash magical powers. It was enough to make any third year cower in fear.

"You guys ready?" James said, grinning like a madman. "Let's head out!"

I rolled my eyes and nudged Albus in the ribs. I was pretty much convinced that this was the stupidest idea James had ever come up with – and there was a lot to choose from. I think he had all gathered us up by force, or the lure of Honeydukes chocolate, or something that I forget. But he got us into this mess, and we had to get ourselves out of it.

"So, you guys think you can stay, keep up with James?" Roxanne said, grinning at us as we made our way into the forest. I stepped over a couple roots, careful not to trip, and emerged myself into the earthy smell and pitch darkness. James was up ahead, the light from his wand shining very bright. We all lit our wands and passed Dominique on the way in, who shook her head slowly, as if she were watching our deaths take place.

"No way," Louis said. "I know I can't keep up with him, but I can at least try, right? We're all in this together."

"Right," I said. "Me too. And you, Al?"

The tightening of his arm beside me and no answer was enough of an indication for me.

"Al?" I asked softly, touching his shoulder tentatively. "Al, are you okay?"

"Sure," he said faintly. Even in the darkness of the forest I could see the strain of his shoulders and the tight, pale-lipped expression on his face. We were a hundred or two hundred feet into the forest now, the darkness closing in around us, still following James, whose light was getting fainter by the second since we stopped.

"Do you want to leave? Go get James to help us?" I asked. Even though we were so far into the forest now that we couldn't find our way out alone, James could probably cast some red sparks and get us out of here. Al was my best friend, and I'd never leave him alone.

A twig broke over by Roxanne on the left side of our group, and Albus jumped up a foot in the air and yelped. Louis stumbled over in surprise, Roxanne dropped her wand, and I flung out a hand at the last minute to catch my best friend.

"Al! Al!" I screamed, rocking him back and forth.

"Get me out of here!" he said, looking around at the darkness all around us. Louis and Roxanne's expressions were just as cautious as his was.

"Okay, you guys stay here," I said, motioning with my hands to stop. "I'll go get James." And I took off running straight, where I had last seen the faint light, hoping to catch up to the annoying Potter in a matter of seconds.

But I didn't. The darkness just seemed endless, and I had probably taken twenty wrong turns when I heard a huge rustle. What was 'straight' didn't seem so anymore. The tree roots constantly tripped me, and it seemed I was running in a blind circle around the forest. James was nowhere to be found.

I kept running for another couple minutes, hoping to find something that would help me. Like another lost person, or centaur that I could hope to ride, anything. But the darkness was the thickest it ever was, and my wand light was practically useless in pitch blackness.

What would I do?

I was all alone in the forest, a tiny third year. Not only that, but Al and Louis and Roxanne were probably stuck miles away, waiting on me, lost little me, to save the day. I reached a clearing where there didn't seem to be anything I could easily trip over, cupped my hands over my mouth, and yelled.

"Help! James! Al! Lou! Roxanne! Help, somebody, help!"

And I kept at it for a good five minutes, but it only served the purpose of tiring my lungs out so I couldn't scream anymore. I started panting, and my breath came out in little white puffs of air – this far into the forest, where sunlight didn't shine, it was freezing. I closed my cloak tighten around my body.

I sat down against a tree on the soft soil, never feeling so helpless in my life. Except for the time that James stole my wand before a huge Charms exam and nobody else's would work for me. In case you were wondering, I got it back, with a little help from my friends.

I was desperately close to crying. I hated crying. I positioned my head against the trunk of the tree, listening to the chirps and birdcalls of the day until I finally drifted off to a restless sleep.

A rustle in the bushes near me jolted me awake. I lifted my head from its previous position and squinted in the direction, pointing my wand, which didn't really serve a purpose, but made me feel more confident.

"Al?" I asked hesitantly in a hoarse voice. "Are you there? James? Dom? Anyone? Please Merlin, not a – "

And out of the trees stepped a familiar Slytherin.

" – scorpion. Not a scorpion." But I stood up anyway, grinning ridiculously at finally finding a rescuer. He was covered in tree branches and leaves and dirt, which stood out against his pale hair and skin.

And then I stopped, coming up with possibilities of why my worst enemy, Scorpius Malfoy, could be here. "You aren't going to hex me, are you? Or make fun of me? Or leave me here so that you can become the top third year Hogwarts student?"

He reached out a pale hand, dirty from his journey, and laughed. "Of course I won't. I heard your screams from a mile away, back in Herbology. You're lucky it was my time to collect the soil for the Mandrakes. Now c'mon, before I change my mind about helping you."

I gripped his hand with my own and we started running in the direction he had come, his wand lit with a faint glow in front of me. It was a chore, trying to not trip over the tangled roots and half-stumps. After fifteen minutes of wandering, I asked, "Do you know where you're going?"

He shook his head. "Not a clue. But I'm saving you, aren't I?"

This shut me up. I nodded and we continued through the forest and darkness. I was pretty sure that Scorpius was just trying every route, looking for one that gave a faint glimmer of hope. After another half-hour of me gripping dirty his hand like a lifesaver, I saw a small light appear above our heads. There was a break in the trees.

"Scorpius!" I cried, looking up at the sky. "Look it! We're close! The trees are thinning! We're not going to die!"

He laughed and continued pulling me straight, where, sure enough, I could see the castle looming up ahead and the greenhouse sitting nicely to the side. And the soil that he was supposed to collect right at the edge of the forest.

When we finally emerged, I had only two desires: to murder James, and check to see if Albus, Louis, and Roxanne were all right. But, instead of delivering me to safety or anything, Scorpius picked up a soil bag and started towards the greenhouse, even though class was probably over a while ago.

"Hey, um, Scorpius?" I called after him.

He stopped and turned around. His facial muscles were straining from the effort it took to carry the soil. "Yes, Rose?"

"I just want to say thank you. I would've been stuck there forever if you hadn't come around."

He shrugged, blushing a little, turning around and calling over his back, "But I didn't get you out in time for class! We're both late! I didn't know how to get out of there!"

And I smiled because sometimes, you need anyone, no matter if they know the way, to rescue you.

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**A/N:** Please review, I hope the next update will come quicker. :D


	25. Run

**A/N:** Thanks for the overwhelming response for the last chapter! And, I actually updated quickly! I got some time today to write because I don't have to do any schoolwork (since Thanksgiving is tomorrow, for all you Americans. Happy Thanksgiving!).

So, I now present to you the twenty-fifth chapter of this story! We're halfway through! Hopefully the rest of the updates will come fast from now on. :)

**Disclaimer:** Do not own! But Rose/Scorpius wouldn't be that fun to write about in canon if I did own Harry Potter, would it?

* * *

_**.:Live to Love:.**_

**.x. **_**run**_** .x.**

I couldn't stop running.

Not until I reached the wide castle grounds. Not until I flung myself down on the wet grass by the lake, which was turbulent with an oncoming storm. Not until I curled up into a small ball and twisted my face into an impassive expression, holding back the tears as much as possible. Not until I forgot everything that I had witnessed.

It didn't mean anything. Of course it didn't. Why would it mean anything?

The tears at the edge of my eyes were threatening to trickle down my cheers. I bit my lip harder than I thought humanly possible and rocked back and forth. _I am strong_, I told myself, _just like my dad and my mom and Uncle Harry_. _If they fought the Dark Lord and won, then I have to contain some of their fighting strength in me, right?_

Breathe in, breathe out.

There was no point to me being completely and utterly upset about what I had just witnessed, anyway. I mean, he could go and kiss whomever he wanted, right? It wasn't like I was his mother and had to chase him around, chanting, "No, Scorpius, you can't kiss that girl, I don't like her."

And plus, there wasn't anything between us. Not even a tiny bit of attraction. We were just friends, and nothing more. The candid kisses in the corner of the library, the tender touch of his fingers grazing my arm, the gentle brush of his hand on my hair. It all meant nothing.

There was nothing between us. Nothing, nothing, nothing.

I pounded the word into my head until it didn't mean anything to me. Nothing, nothing, nothing. I replayed the scene I had seen only minutes before, still fresh and colorful in my mind. I relived it over and over again until my emotions were used up. And so, when I played it back again, all I could feel was a numbness of nothing, sucked dry.

Nothing, nothing, nothing.

"Rose! Rose! Aw, crap, Rose!"

I was amazed that I could still hold in the tears when I saw his rumpled hair. I guess it was true that time healed wounds, or so my mother said. My legs were still shaky, threatening to send me tumbling to the ground, so I stood up hesitantly, gripping the tree trunk behind me for support. I was going to need it.

"Rose," he said, finally coming face to face with me. His cheeks were flushed, hair sticking up at all angles, lips red and bruised from kissing. I shied away from the last detail and put a look of carelessness on my face, holding my head high.

It took a lot more effort than I'm sure it looked.

"Yes?" I asked, my voice cold and hard.

Scorpius wasn't fooled by my act. He ran a hand through his pale hair, pain clearly showing in his eyes. Why? I don't know. "I've been looking all over for you."

"So?" I took a step back from him, so my back was directly against the tree.

He inched closer and took a deep breath that hit me square in the face. Fresh minty breath, even after sucking face with that other Slytherin. Typical. "Rose… what you saw, I – "

I narrowed my eyes. "You what?" I prompted.

"It… didn't mean anything," he finished lamely, looking up at me with hopeful eyes.

I bitterly laughed. "Oh yes, I truly, honestly believe that. But, it doesn't matter anyway. We never had anything. Nothing at all."

He closed his eyes for a brief moment, and I knew he was dealing with some huge internal conflict. What that conflict would be, I had no idea. It wasn't like we ran around holding hands or declaring ourselves boyfriend and girlfriend. We didn't even make physical contact under the watchful public eye, even though everyone asked me if we were going out.

I didn't have a problem with him kissing that girl. Did he? Probably not.

"We do have something," he said when he opened his eyes. Scorpius placed a hand on either of my arms and rubbed up and down, creating goose bumps along his trails. "We do. I swear we do."

"No, we don't. Now let go of me."

His hand moved up to brush some hair that had fallen into my eyes. "Rose, I – "

"Stop it." I slipped out from under his grasp, slowly backing up out of the shade of the tree, ready to make a run for it in a few seconds. "You can kiss other girls, I can kiss other guys. So what? We don't have anything. Why would it bother me?"

"It bothers me," Scorpius said, the pain evident in his voice. "It does. Because we have something."

"Merlin, Scorpius," I said, turning around so he couldn't see my hurt expression. "Use the past tense! We're not boyfriend and girlfriend. What part of that do you not get? We didn't have anything and we don't now. Get over it!"

"Rose, you mean so much more to me than that. What I did was really stupid, Rose, the stupidest mistake I have ever made in my life, and I never should have. I never meant to hurt you. I'd rather have a thousand torture curses than ever treat you like this again. Just please…"

I forced my expression to be stony when I met his gaze one last time and said, "There's nothing. Nothing, nothing, nothing at all."

And I turned around and ran like I always did.

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**A/N:** Please review. Thank you. :D


	26. Milky

**A/N:** Ack! Sorry for late update. Also, I would like to thank each and every one of you for contributing to my 300th review! Seriously, thanks so much. I probably still wouldn't be going if it weren't for all of the support. :)

And, finally, I'd really appreciate it if you could visit my profile page and vote in my poll. It's about Harry Potter pairings that I'm writing a one-shot for, and the one that gets the most votes is the next one-shot I'll post. Rose/Scorpius is one of the choices, so please vote if you're interested! Thanks in advance. :D

On with the drabble!

**Disclaimer:** I do not own the Harry Potter series, even though I'd really, really like to.

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_**.:Live to Love:.**_

**.x. **_**milky**_** .x.**

"How would you like your coffee today?"

Rose Weasley and I exchanged a glance over our table at an American café. The waitress was poised above us with her restaurant notepad clutched in one hand and a pen in the other. I turned towards Rose, and she mouthed, _I've never had coffee before_.

I looked up at the waitress. "Could you just bring two mugs, some milk, and sugar, please?"

"Certainly," the waitress said and walked away.

It was early in the morning, and we were out on our first weekend of Auror training in the United States of America. We only had classes during the week, so on this beautiful Saturday we sat in a wizard café we had found downtown through the floo network and settled in for breakfast.

Rose wrinkled her nose at me. "What's coffee taste like, Scorpius? My parents never had any in the house."

"Just wait," I said and grabbed her hand under the table, rubbing smooth circles with my thumb into her palm. We waited, talking and laughing and discussing about the new environment around us until the coffee ingredients arrived, all lined up in a row: two mugs, a pot of coffee that instantly was charmed to fill our mugs, a pitcher of milk, and some sugar.

"Enjoy. I'll be back to take your order in a little bit," the waitress said and left us to drink our coffee.

Rose turned towards me expectantly as I reached for my mug. "Can you make mine for me? I've never had coffee before."

"What do you want?" I asked. My mother had sometimes brought home little bags of coffee beans when she was off doing international magic business. It was one of my father's favorite drinks, and it had soon become my favored breakfast too. However, Rose seemed to have missed this American pastime.

"You decide. Anything will do." Rose only shrugged, and I raised my eyebrows. Of course, my girlfriend of six months trusted me completely to determine how to prepare her drinks.

I gave her a skeptical look. She just continued to look into my eyes innocently, blue widening like a child at the holiday season. So I obliged and reached for her mug, putting mine to the side.

At this, she said, "What? You drinking it with no sugar or cream? That seems kind of… odd."

I nodded. My father always urged me to drink black because, apparently, it was the tough way. The milk pitcher was in front of me, so I poured a good amount of it in Rose's coffee and then added three packets of sugar. I slid it over to her, and she clapped her hands around the mug to keep it from sliding off the table.

I brought my mug back to my lips and took a well-needed sip, when Rose made a gagging sound.

"What?" I asked, tilting my head to see her clearly. "What's wrong?"

"Too sugary," she said with a faint smile on her face and slid the mug back to me.

Sighing, I used a Vanishing spell on the present coffee and poured another cup. The steam wafted upwards, and I leaned back a little as to not burn my face. This time, I poured more milk and used only one packet of sugar.

Rose actually caught the mug when I pushed it to her this time, and I turned back to my own coffee. Just as the rim of the cup was touching my lips and the second sip of coffee was burning my mouth, Rose made a disgusted noise.

Once again, I turned to face her. "Yes, Rose?"

"Too milky." She passed the cup back to me, a devilish smirk on her face. It was the kind of smirk inherited from her parents, uncles, and aunts, a smirk that had been practiced for many years. I knew that when she wore it, someone was involved in one of her intricate plans.

In this situation, that someone appeared to be me.

I vanished the 'milky' coffee once again and filled up a new mug, this time only putting in minimal milk and sugar, just the way my mother liked it. I practically slammed the cup down in front of her, a little frustrated. All I wanted to do was spend the one free day I had with my girlfriend after a nice breakfast, not spend hours getting her coffee perfect.

"Too plain," she said, the smile back on her lips.

"Rose, how the heck do you want your coffee then? I've given you everything I can think of."

"No, you haven't."

"Yes, I have."

"You haven't given me black." She smirked even wider. I recognized it from James Potter's face, especially when he was planning to crush me in a Quidditch match. Of course, my relationship with Rose prevented most sabotage from happening, but that didn't mean James stopped all bad thoughts and prevented the devilish smirk from taking over his lips every once and a while.

"Well, I didn't think you'd like black. It's a little too strong," I said.

"Why don't we try and see?"

I reached for her mug again, one hand holding the handle and the other holding the coffee pot, but her hand shot out and gripped my wrist, bringing the items in my hands to the tabletop with a clatter.

"No," Rose said, "not like that."

And she moved forward over the table and pressed her lips to mine, waiting until my lips parted for her to deepen the kiss. I gasped in surprise, but made no move to stop the wonderful, delightful sensation that was bubbling up my stomach. After a couple of seconds, she drew back and smiled with a satisfied smirk.

"Oh, yes. I _love_ black."

And our lips met again, both of us forgetting about any thoughts of coffee at all.

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**A/N: **Please review! Thanks!


	27. Cushion

**A/N: **Thank you for the reviews and reads, everyone! I love them. They really do encourage me, a lot. :)

So, this prompt was hard, I thought, haha. Thank God for the RENT soundtrack. And I came up with a cheesy little weather-themed piece that ended up being a little long. I hope that makes up for the wait. Enjoy! :P

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Harry Potter? I've said that before…

* * *

_**.:Live to Love:.**_

**.x. **_**cushion**_** .x.**

"Oh, Merlin, that was good."

I breathed with the thrill of exercise, my pants coming out in short little puffs. I answered the not-so-tricky question the Ravenclaw portrait gave me and headed inside, waiting for my boyfriend and cousin to follow. Didn't they have more energy in them? I felt fine.

"Slow down," my cousin Louis puffed. "We don't all run around the Quidditch pitch every morning like _some_ people."

I blushed, the famous red that my family was known for painting my cheeks. My dad called it an adorable little gift when I was little – except for when it was happening to him. I called the 'adorable little gift' a curse from the fiery pits of hell. "You guys just fought too hard. You should have just admitted defeated. It doesn't take that much effort to win against James, with or without other people."

Scorpius smirked at me. "You were against us. That's why we fought hard."

I waved at him over my back as we entered the Ravenclaw common room. We were settling in from a snowy day outside, where the annual – or actually, whenever it snowed – Weasley snowball fight took place. Snowballs had flung back and forth – I was pretty sure my blue and silver scarf was completely frozen beyond return – and my team had won. Roxanne, Lucy, Lily, and me. The ultimate snowball squad, when we put our heads into it.

I didn't even know how my boyfriend of one and a half years had ended up on a team with James, Albus, Hugo, and Louis. They clamored and stomped around the school, saying they'd 'dominate' this round. Obviously, they were far off mark.

I stared at Scorpius Malfoy, at his content gray eyes and pale smooth skin. Every time I looked at him, it was like my heart wanted to explode confetti and treats like New Years firecrackers. But every time he whispered, "I love you," in my ear, I found I couldn't say it back.

When I thought I was ready to say it back, my mother's nagging voice would pop in my head, ringing in my ears. She had first lectured me on love back in the Christmas break of third year, when I had first dated some loser named John Marino.

"I'm so happy that you have a boyfriend now," she had said, "but be careful with those three words, Rose, okay?"

"Which ones?" I had asked while Hugo interjected from the other room, "Don't use magic?"

Mum had laughed at Hugo's comment and shouted back, "Not quite. But don't use magic, either!"

"What three words, Mum?" I asked again. I was thirteen, eager and curious to learn.

"They are, 'I love you'," Mom said. "Those three words. Just don't give them out to any old boyfriend that you happen to think you love, okay?"

"Why?" I challenged. "What if I do say them early?"

My mother then sighed and smoothed my hair back from my forehead. "It's just not sincere when you say it the time you mean it. I never said 'I love you' to a guy before I met your father. Sure, I may have wanted to with other guys, but I knew it wasn't right. When I said them to Dad, it was all that more meaningful."

The words started to ring through my head at that moment, as much as I tried I couldn't shake them out of my head. I wrapped my fingers around Scorpius's arm and leaned on his strong body.

"I can't help it if I have a killer arm, and Roxy and I are star chasers on the Ravenclaw Quiddtich team, and have kicked all the other houses' butts for three years straight," I said innocently.

"Hell yeah," Roxanne shouted from her way up to the girls' dormitory.

I grinned at Scorpius. The common room was deserted, mostly because everyone was outside enjoying the snow, sleeping, or curling up next to the huge fire they had set up in the Great Hall for all houses to enjoy. I tugged on his arm for us to go.

"Well, you two have fun, then," Louis said, getting the hint. "I'll be downstairs, comforting James."

"Did we really cream you _that_ bad?"

Louis and Scorpius gave me the 'are-you-freaking-serious' look.

"Fine, go on," I said to Louis, laughing. He winked and dashed out of the common room.

I gripped on Scorpius's arm and tried to drag him towards the blue couch, but he stopped me, shaking his head. "Not warm enough."

He pulled his wand out of his pocket and I stood back. He moved the table in front of the fire to the far end of the room, and then started piling the cushions on all of the chairs in front of the fire, like a stack. All in all, there were eight cushions set up directly in front of the fire by the time he was done.

I grinned at him, and he grinned back, and I was thinking of how it couldn't get any better, and pulled him to the ground on top of the cushions. We adjusted our positions to be comfortable, and I closed my eyes for a brief second, loving life.

The fire in front of us was crackling in a soothing way. The room was filled with a mixture of soft gray light and little dashes of orange here and there. I moved some of the cushions under me and then snuggled up to Scorpius's side, shivering in my wet clothes.

"Hey," he said, wrapping his arm tighter around my shoulder. "I could get you some warm clothes. You look so cold."

"It's okay," I said, preferring his steady heartbeat that seemed to radiate warmth into my body. "I just like being by your side."

He kissed the top of my forehead, and snuggled in closer. We sat watching the fire, and I thought of how I never would've guessed that in my seventh year at Hogwarts, I'd be dating a Malfoy. The one boy that my father had warned me about when I was younger.

"Have you ever thought about the fact that our parents hate each other?" I asked quietly.

Scorpius shrugged. "A little. I don't really consider it a factor in our relationship."

"But it is a factor," I said. "I mean, if they hate each other, then they would look down on us together. My father would accept it, but he wouldn't be too happy, and I think your dad would be even less enthusiastic."

He laughed. "If either of our fathers give us a hard time, I think I'd just have to kidnap you, and we'd have to run away together."

I snorted at the idea. Mostly because we could both use magic and get ourselves out of any situation anyway. "Oh, Merlin, sounds dangerous. Why?"

He looked down at me seriously. "I love you. If I wanted to marry you when we're out of Hogwarts, I wouldn't care about what they'd think. Just the fact that I love you and want to marry you would be enough for me to whisk you away. We would live together, just the two of us."

_Just the two of us_. I liked the sound of it. But there was the 'L' word again, popping out at me. I stared into the fire, contemplating what he said.

Had I ever been happier with anyone else? Had any other relationship ever felt this right? Like I knew what to expect, and I didn't? Like I was running across clouds, even though they were disappearing under me? Like a curse shuddering through my body, but it was one I never wanted to be set free of?

I couldn't remember ever having anything so amazing with anyone. My mom said that I should wait for the right person, and I knew that he was Scorpius Malfoy. My prince charming, my knight in shining armor. He was my true love.

So I whispered, "I love you," on the cold winter day in the middle of December, with the fire roaring in front of us, and the cushions beneath our bodies, and Scorpius's arm wrapped comfortingly around me.

And nothing had ever felt so perfect.

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**A/N:** Please review, I'd appreciate it SO much! :D


	28. Vase

**A/N:** Thanks so much for reviews, favorites, alerts, and hits, everyone! It means a lot to me. :)

And… I seriously don't have an excuse for why this is so delayed. But, in two weeks I get all new classes, so I'm hoping the workload will be a little less. That means more updates. So, yay! On with the drabble!

**Disclaimer:** … Why would I have a disclaimer if I owned Harry Potter?

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_**.:Live to Love:.**_

**.x. **_**vase**_** .x.**

Scorpius Malfoy always seemed like the untouchable type of guy.

The smooth planes of his pale skin, hair that was always slicked back against his head and not a strand out of place, the ironed Slytherin robes that never held a single stain. He gave off the aura of someone important, someone who turned heads, someone who everyone wanted to get to know.

That's probably why I noticed him in the first place, though. The way he carried himself, the way his gray eyes seemed to twinkle a little when he caught mine, the way he flew his broom around the Quidditch pitch in a heated match. It captured me, how he seemed unbreakable and indestructible, so sure and certain and just… perfect.

It's part of the reason I showed interest in him. Especially when we would sit on either side of a library table, doing homework. One day, he said in a crystal clear and honest voice, "You always seem to beat me in every class."

I shrugged and tried to keep my hand steady on my quill. Which proved to be quite difficult around him. "Well, I guess it's just inherited from my mother."

Scoripus put his quill down and stared at me with a faint smile on his face. "I don't think so."

He was so confident in his answer, as if it was right and none other was, that the famous Weasely blush rushed into my cheeks and threatened to burn off my face.

And at that moment, he could've made fun of me, like a low-life Slytherin would have. He could have taunted me, added to my embarrassment, or acted like a prat, which I knew my cousins would do in this situation like this.

But, instead of doing the predictable, he reached out a hand and stroked my flaming cheek. "You're prettier with that blush."

Which, of course, made me redden even more.

Scorpius Malfoy lured me into his life, ever so slowly. Telling me about his past, and asking about mine. Helping me with homework when I was stuck, and me returning the favor. Soon, I was wrapped up with this perfect guy that regular girls dreamed about in their sleep. So it wasn't a surprise I fell in love with him, and he became the most treasured person in my life.

But a few months after I had started dating him, I learned something when we were strolling the grounds.

"What do you want to do when you graduate?" Scorpius said. His hand was holding mine in a tender way, as if he wanted me to know I was safe with him. Or, it could've had something to do with the shivers and red nose that the bitter weather was causing, too.

I shrugged. "Something with Charms, maybe. Or St. Mungo's. Definitely not the Ministry. From what Mum says, it's a pretty corrupt place. How about you?"

Scorpius shrugged. "I don't know. My father puts so much expectation on me, to follow his footsteps and work at the Ministry."

I turned to face him, with my wild red hair and rosy face. "Why? Can't you be your own person?"

His expression got a little darker. It was the first time I had seen his face in a different construction than the usual smile and pale glow that radiated like the sun. "I wish. My father… he wants me to live up to Malfoy expectations. Which means working at the Ministry. My mum wants me to be my own person, but my father wants certain things to go certain ways for me."

"You don't have to do what he wants."

Scorpius looked torn between listening to what his conscience was telling him, or what his father was whispering in his ear. "I know. He wouldn't disown me or anything, but it'd be a secret kind of hate. My savings would be cut, or he and Mum wouldn't support me. I'd basically have no connection to him, especially if I married into a family he hated, such as yours."

And that was when I realized that he was not the indestructible being everyone always thought he was. He had insecurities, pressure, tons of force pushing down on his shoulders. I was afraid for him. And at that moment, he swooped me into his embrace and promised to marry me as soon as we were out of Hogwarts, despite whatever his father thought, because he loved me like a man ever could. I said yes in advance, just in case he would be afraid to ask in the future.

Because I could picture him on a pedestal. A fragile, delicate vase on a pedestal. One incredibly valuable one that had the most beautiful and intricate patterns on the outside and contained the sweetest smelling flowers in the world. A vase that I was undeniably in love with, one that I cherished and never wanted to let go.

And I pictured the pressure. He was balancing on that small platform, ready to topple in any direction at any minute. I could picture one wrong push, even by the tiniest weight, and he would be sent toppling, falling only to crash into a million tiny shards on the ground.

Good thing I would be there to catch him before he hit, forever and always.

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**A/N:** Please review. It'd make me very happy!


	29. Crystal

**A/N:** I am SO SORRY for not updating. Really. More than ever. I promise I'm getting back on track, possibly weekly updates. English class is making me feel like writing.

Anyway, I'm actually kind of fond of this drabble. It's cute to me, anyway. So, I hope you like it. :D

**Disclaimer:** Ugh. I DO NOT OWN.

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_**.:Live to Love:.**_

**.x. **_**crystal**_** .x.**

It was like all my life, I was looking through a foggy lens.

Nothing was ever clear to me, even though I tried to polish and clean and remove all the smudges. I would squint my eyes, trying to see why things were how they were, and how this or that could possibly be. I tried to find an answer for everything, but I was only straining my eyes and making everything blurrier.

It didn't make sense that he chose me, and I was trying to figure out why.

There is nothing special about me. I am a simple redhead, with too many freckles possible for one being that I am sure to get skin cancer when I am older. My teeth aren't the straightest or whitest, and my hair looks like tiny serpents slithering back and forth around my head. I always end up saying the stupidest things at the worst times, and I trip over my words more than Professor Longbottom on tree roots.

And he, he is like a… god trapped in a mortal body. The cleanest and brightest smile you have ever seen, like a crescent moon. His hair is always tamed, even when it sticks up at the oddest angles and looks like he just rolled out of bed, which he is probably true. He is probably the nicest person on earth, and had more than half of the female population swooning over him at Hogwarts.

Which made it weird that he chose me.

Me, quiet shy me who sat in the back of classes ever since I was sorted into Ravenclaw and didn't know anyone. Me, who hid in the corner of the library working on homework and keeping my mouth shut if anyone attempted to make any sort of conversation. Me, the unattractive Weasley who seemed unapproachable, unlikable, unmanageable, period.

Me, the one that he approached when I was just a little first year and held out a hand to, saying, "You're Rose Weasley, aren't you?" with a smile.

Me, who answered, "Yes. I am," and agreed to his invitation to sit at the Slytherin table the next day.

Our relationship was weird at first. He tried to press into a friendship with me, but I just didn't believe he was serious about it and kept pulling back. What right did I have to form ties with someone who was so much better and greater than me? What did he see in me that made him want to pursue my friendship? I was only me, Rose Weasley, nothing special.

And he was everything that everyone wanted to be. Girls would fawn over him, their greatest wish on a single shooting star in the sky that he was their best friend. And while they prayed for a word out of his lips in their direction, I was being handed the whole package a silver platter. It didn't seem real.

Why me?

He kept chasing me, the invitations for friendly activities turning into dates for a romantic couple. I would stare at him for what seemed like minutes, trying to figure out his motive, until I would just finally agree for the lack of anything better to do, and mostly to get him off my suspicious case. And when he took me on those dates, holding my hand, I felt as if I was living some surreal fantasy where I was a person that a perfect guy could love.

One day, when I was fed up with living in the shades-of-gray world that I wanted to separate into black and white, I turned towards him and asked, "Why me?"

And he looked at me as if I was kidding or going to say, "Gotcha!" at any moment. But when my serious expression, probably close to desperation and tears at not knowing something, registered in his mind, he just held me close and sighed.

"I don't know," he said. "I thought I'd go and talk to you. Like you would just be another first year. And… it was just there. The connection. Ever present, you know? I knew that you were someone that was worth fighting for, no matter how long."

"But that doesn't make sense," I whispered.

His arm around my shoulders tightened, and he whispered back, "Some things just don't have to make sense, Rose. They just are."

And that's when the sunlight shined through, and the foggy lens cleared to a spotless shine. I could see why he had chosen me, and why I had chosen him. Hadn't I felt the need to fall in love with him, too? What we had was unexplainable, undeniable, and unpredictable. It didn't make sense.

But that was why I saw it crystal clear, and never felt the need to question our love again.

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**A/N:** Review? Maybe? Please? :)


	30. Chicken

**A/N:** I. Am. SO. SORRY. I haven't updated in almost two months. Ugh, my school and life has been so hectic, and I had NO inspiration for this prompt. But I was determined to finish it today, and I don't think it came out terrible. I wanted to post more regularly in the future, hopefully. And I hope you like this one. :)

**Disclaimer:** Don't ownnnnn. Or else I'd write sequels about the Next Gen!

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_**.:Live to Love:.**_

**.x. **_**chicken**_** .x.**

"A _chicken_?"

I immediately brought my hand to my mouth, trying to stifle laughter, but Albus sent me a warning glance anyway. So I buried my head in my arms and laid them on the Transfiguration book in my lap that I was desperately trying to study. But when could I pay attention in turning mice to tea cups when our plan was unfolding? I could see Transfiguration right in front of me.

"You got me a _rubber chicken_ for our one month anniversary present?" I heard Lily continue to screech from across the common room.

Scorpius tried to plead. "No, babe, that's not what it is! I swear it was a rose… before, anyway, and I don't know why – "

"You got it from my uncle's shop!" she yelled. I could hear the tears start to form in her voice. "You got a rose from my uncle's shop and expected me to deal with the joke!"

Albus tugged my sleeve, and I brought my head up again. "You might want to see this," he said with a huge grin.

I looked over at the young couple. The purple smoke still hung in the air, glittery and thick from when Lily sniffed the rose and out popped a rubber chicken. Now, her and Scorpius were standing feet apart, tears running down her face, Scorpius looking very awkward and unsure. Man, Uncle George was a genius.

"I didn't know it would do that!" he yelled back. His temper was like fire to gasoline. "Those two gave – "

"You did it! Stop lying! You've hated me all along! Our relationship was only a joke, a scam!" she screeched.

"No, no, Lily, it's not!"

"Yes, it is! You've just loved Rose the whole time anyway. Well, congrats, now you get her. We're through, Scorpius!"

And with that, Lily whipped around on her heel and darted up the girls' dormitory stairs, but not before throwing the rubber chicken in Scorpius's face. He caught it and stared at it in the purple haze of smoke, making him look entirely lavender and sparkly.

"It worked," Albus whispered in my ear. "He's yours."

I rolled my eyes. "I don't _want_ him, Al. I didn't when we made this plan, and I don't now. You know I only went along with this to make Scoprius miserable."

"Is that so?"

I whipped around at the sound of his voice. There he was, the perfect ice king with a few sparkles in his hair, standing above me with a livid look upon his face. And maybe Albus didn't know something important about this Malfoy, but I knew better from tormenting him for the past six years to run.

I dashed out of my seat, mumbling about Potions, but he was too fast. He grabbed my arm, spun me around, and I crashed into his chest before he pushed me down on the couch.

"Ow," I squeaked. "That hurt."

"It should have, just like you hurt Lily," he snapped at us. "You're the ones who gave me that flower. You're the ones who knew that it would turn into a rubber chicken."

"Did we?" I stared innocently at Albus on the couch next to me. He shrugged his shoulders, and I turned back to my enemy. "I don't believe we did, Scorpius."

"You did, stop lying. You will get revenge for this."

"Why aren't you crying your eyes out about your latest breakup, Scorp?" Albus taunted. He knew Scorpius hated that nickname. "Why aren't you trying to win her back? Why aren't you miserable like Rose wants you to be?"

He put on a tight and blank expression. "We knew it was over. We were grasping at straws."

"Oh, really?" I said, seeing Albus's point. He should have been distraught over his breakup with Lily. I know I would be if a boyfriend had given me a rose that turned into a rubber chicken. So why was he acting like he couldn't care less about my cousin?

"Yes, really."

"Then you should be thanking us for ending your relationship before it got ugly," I snapped. "Better a breakup that wasn't your fault then one that is."

"If you're forgetting, Lily _thinks_ it's my fault, not her cousins'," he growled.

I waved my hand over my face, too happy to care about facts when we just won our victory. "Oh, right. Well, still, you should be thanking us. I mean, you're free of her now. Isn't that good enough?"

"No, it's not," he said quietly.

"Well, it should be. Now I have Transfiguration homework, so if you could be so kind as to leave the common room, that'd be much appreciated."

"Yeah, bye, Scorp," Albus said.

He narrowed his eyes at Albus and glared. And then that stony gray gaze flipped on to me. I was felt smaller under his gaze, but I had always attributed that to how much taller he was than me, especially now with me sitting and him standing.

"Just know, Rose," he said and leaned down very close to me with hands on either side of my head resting on the couch. Way too close. I felt like pushing him away, because I hated the breath on my cheeks, lips, nose, everything. It was making me uncomfortable. And that was a very, very bad thing.

"That I will get my revenge," he whispered, lips brushing mine when he talked before he stood up and left the common room, all of the Gryffindors staring between the Slytherin and Ravenclaw who had appeared to hate each other seconds ago.

I was so shocked it was like a rubber chicken had been thrown in _my _face.

"Your cheeks are red," Albus felt no time wasting to point out. "It looks like my plan is working already. Step One, check. Scorpius free from Lilykins, and onto you."

I droned out Albus's tone, which was so I-freaking-told-you-so that I couldn't listen to it anymore. My hands went to my cheeks, and they were beet red from embarrassment. I stared at the portrait hole, as if Scorpius would appear through it any moment, the same way he left.

I didn't know why, but I was looking forward to Scorpius's revenge.

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**A/N:** I know I don't deserve it, but please review. Thanks. :)


	31. Young

**A/N:** Hooray! Update! Just want to say one thing: there's one reason I didn't include names of the kids in this (no, R&S _do not_ have ten million of them). I don't really want to think about the next generation, is why. I believe that's way too far in the future for fanfiction, but I knew I had to write this drabble with their kids because it was calling to me and wouldn't be the same with random ones. So, there. Anyways, enjoy. :)

**Disclaimer:** Dooooo notttttt ownnnn.

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_**.:Live to Love:.**_

**.x. **_**young**_** .x.**

You remember what it is like to be young.

Your kids run around the living room, playing with little toy cars that _vroom_ across the hardwood floor. When they tire, they start hanging onto your robe, begging you to tell them a bedtime story. They plead and plead until you finally agree, settling in a chair in the middle of their room while they're in their beds.

"Did I ever tell you the story of how I met your father?" you say, and they eagerly shake their heads, tiny red and strawberry blonde curls swinging.

You clear your throat, nostalgic memories clouding your mind. "Once, a long time ago, I went to Hogwarts, just like you all will in a couple of years. It was where I spent the best years of my life. And it's where I first saw your father."

They shuffle around, getting comfortable, knowing a good story is coming their way with such a grand introduction as this one.

"He was gorgeous." The kids blush in embarrassment at the faraway look in your eyes. "Handsome. Romantic. Every girl in school wanted to date him."

"And why did you?" one of the kids asks in a small, squeaky voice.

You take a deep breath. "Because one day while I was sitting at the Gryffindor table with cousin Al, he pointed him out to me. 'See him?' Al said. 'That's Scorpius Malfoy. You should go talk to him, live a little. I heard he wanted to meet you.'"

"Daddy!" the youngest kid screams in recognition.

You laugh. "We became best friends, but one day, your dad did something horrible that made me upset." You remember when you caught him in a broom closet with a skimpy Hufflepuff. And even though you weren't dating at the time, it made you angry beyond belief.

You didn't know why you cared. You weren't dating him, were you? Then why did it matter? He thought it mattered. You didn't know why it mattered. And it bothered you to no end. Friends could kiss other people. Friends don't kiss friends. But you both weren't acting like friends when green clouded your visions.

There is a collective gasp from the audience.

"But then your father apologized, brought me a dozen roses, and told me that he loved me forever and always."

"Awww," one of them says. "That's so sweet, Mummy."

"Then you and Daddy got married!" another cheers.

They never cease to amaze you with their simple minds, so you smile. "Well, we did get married, but not until later. Mummy and Daddy needed to finish school, and then, yes, we did get married. And then guess what?"

"What?" They all lean on the tips of their toes to catch your words.

"We had _you_!" You tap each of their noses in the order they were born, and they all giggle with delight, holding their bellies and smiling ear to ear and sporting red cheeks that rival even your own.

"And we lived happily ever after!" you say, throwing up your hands, and they cheer along with you.

The story you told was so good that they immediately go to bed, which is a good sign because it's near impossible on most days. You smile at their closed eyelids, their chests moving silently up and down, the innocence captured when they're not looking.

All those years ago, you wanted to strangle Albus for suggesting such a thing as talking to girl-magnet Scorpius Malfoy, but now, all you want to do is thank him for offering you the best life possible.

Being young has its advantages, but you now know the years that come after it can be the best in your life.

Happily ever after, indeed.

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**A/N:** I love reviews! :D


	32. Rousing

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Harry Potter.

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_**.:Live to Love:.**_

**.x. **_**rousing**_** .x.**

Rose,

Did it always feel like a dream to you?

It did to me. Waking up every day and seeing you lying down next to me. Staring into your eyes and knowing that someone would always be there for me. Seeing you every day in every way I could. Even when we were in Hogwarts, I couldn't believe there was someone out there in the world that could understand me and still tick me off as much as you could.

Remember when we first met? It was the first day of Hogwarts. You weren't hanging your shoulders in defeat that you had to come, and you weren't over-eager in a way that was quite obnoxious, with books piled in your arms and wand already out to curse anyone who dared to ruin this illusion. You were soaking it all in, like me. You were looking around, staring at everything in awe, like you couldn't believe your eyes that this was Hogwarts and you were there.

I was too. I couldn't believe I was in the place my father talked about for years, despite his negative and disdainful tone. I was a lot smarter than him. I knew better than to be prejudiced against muggle-borns. I knew better than to think Slytherin was the best house. And I knew better than to hate the Potters and Weasleys. Look where that landed me.

Is it because of the distance?

Apparating halfway around the world doesn't bother me. I don't know why it bothers you, the way we can see each other whenever we want, wherever we want. Isn't that the gift of magic, the way you breathed it all in that first day at Hogwarts? All the wonders and opportunities and possibilities that come with it?

Is it because of our parents?

Sure, your father accepted us eventually, and mine was a more than a little cold at first. But they met halfway after we yelled at them for it. They put aside their prejudices for us, Rose. If anything, we should have stayed together to prove to them that love can grow between the oddest of people. If anything, they'll hate each other even more now, almost as much as you appear to hate me.

Is it because of the competition?

Have you always felt the need to compete with me, to be as good as I am? Because I always felt that way with you. Always striving to be good enough for you, because honestly, why would you want an arrogant Slytherin with Malfoy as a last name anyway? You could have any guy at Hogwarts, Merlin knows. But you chose me. Sure, our intelligence put us at odds ends, but we worked through it. Well, maybe only I did.

Is it because of your cousins?

Did Hugo and James bother you so much that you couldn't stand it anymore? I know Dominique wasn't too keen on me either; same with Fred and Roxanne. I knew they didn't like me, but I didn't know you'd value their opinion over your own. You always used to yell at your brother and cousins whenever they said something snide about me. If their opinion mattered more, then we would have broke up _years_ ago.

Or is it because of me?

I'm not perfect. I'm not the price charming that I know every girl dreams about ever since they read fairy tales. Mr. Perfect and Flawless In Every Way. I know I'm not that guy. I have flaws, and probably more than the average guy. You would know better than anyone else.

But it never bothered you, I didn't think. And your flaws never bothered me. I loved them. They made Rose Weasley. Flaws make a person, they don't take away from someone. But did you see them a different way? Cracks in a glass that was meant to be thrown away eventually, or glued back together so meticulously until no one could see them anymore?

I don't know, Rose. I don't know anymore. But I only realized one thing when you told me we were over on that cold rainy day before you flew off to America for your job.

I'm rousing from sleep, and I know that it was all just a dream after all.

Scorpius

(Quite honestly? I'm not sure how I should end this, but I think just a simple signature will do.)

(Especially since I probably won't owl this to you. If I were to, then it would be with love. Always, with love.)

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**A/N:** Seven months. That's how long it's been since I last updated this story. I can't freaking believe myself. This story is my treasured one. I can write about Scorpius and Rose, in many little situations inspired by words. So why have I neglected it?

I have no idea. All summer and fall I tried to write different stories – and all I got out of it was a few measly unfinished one-shots, and an R/S story, about six chapters in, that I haven't posted. I haven't decided if I want to post it. I don't know if I can handle the commitment anymore, after I have failed this story so miserably.

I'm not going to promise you guys anything in terms of updates because I've made so many promises in the past, but I will say that my New Year's resolution is to be more active with fanfiction. I'm going to try to update. I really will! After such a long break from this story, I'm ready to give another go with a fresh and open mind. But don't get your hopes up. I'm going to update when I want to, because it's the only way I'm going to ease back into this.

Thank you for staying with me, dear readers. You all are really the best. Ever. :)


	33. Surprise

**Disclaimer:** I still don't own it… no surprise…

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_**.:Live to Love:.**_

**.x. **_**surprise**_** .x.**

"Bye, Mum!"

Hermione Granger took her daughter's face in her hands and kissed her forehead. She held on so tight that Rose Weasley was unsure she would ever let go. "You'll be good, right?"

"Yes, Mum!" Rose said impatiently, eyes moving around the platform. She didn't want to get the reputation of a mummy's girl on the first day of Hogwarts. At this rate, she'd have to sit with James and all of his scary cronies at the feast tonight – _if_ she was lucky.

"And stay out of trouble?"

"Why would I get into it?"

"And don't tell Uncle Harry, but keep away from James, stick with Uncle Bill's kids, okay?"

"Yes, Mum, I've got it. I got it a month ago when you told me. Can I go now?"

Hermione brushed the hair back from Rose's forehead. Rose was starting to worry, because she saw Uncle Harry and Aunt Ginny waving to the train, with Lily looking sullen-faced by their side. Where were James and Albus? They weren't allowed to go ahead and find a compartment without her!

"Yes, of course," she said. Her mother let go and her father Ron Weasley took Rose into a huge hug, and it felt warm and safe and everything that it was supposed to be when she was going away for the first time in forever.

"Good luck, Rosie, do well," he said to her before she dashed off with her trunk behind her, with her father's words from earlier about some Malfoy boy ringing in her ears as she climbed the train steps.

Although when she got to the hallway, all the compartments were chaos. Students were running in and out, and doors were shutting on either sides, and how the heck was she supposed to find Al in this mess? Students were screaming and hugging and Rose even hit a couple with her trunk as she headed for the back of the train car.

She finally reached a compartment with the door closed tight that didn't have anyone running out of it. Thinking it was Albus just patiently waiting for her, she slid open the door and gaped at who was in it.

It was not her best friend Albus, but rather, the Malfoy boy her father had just warned her about.

He had a book in his lap, and his elbows were on his knees as he read it silently. It even took a couple of seconds before he looked up with a gray gaze and met her eyes. But even though she had expected his gaze to be cold and unfriendly like the tone her father had talked of him, it wasn't. It was warm and friendly, and he said, "Hey. I'm Scorpius Malfoy. Who are you?"

She hesitantly took a step inside, wondering whether to trust him when her father seemed so against it. "I'm Rose Weasley. My father doesn't like you."

He rolled his eyes, unlike scoffing and protesting as she expected him to. "Lots of people don't like me. But it's okay."

"Why's it okay?" Rose asked quietly. Everyone should be liked on default, unless given a reason not to, and he seemed like a very nice boy.

"Well, it's – oh, sit down. I'll tell you." And she decided to because how was she going to find Albus in this mess? He smiled at her and put the book on the seat next to him, helping her stash her trunk away. He sat down across from her, and she took a tentative seat on the opposite side.

"I'm Draco Malfoy's son," he said simply.

Rose inhaled. "You're _his son_? No, you're not! You can't be!"

His eyebrows knitted together, and she realized she hadn't meant to say that out loud. She blushed a little. "Why can't I be his son?"

"You're way too nice," she blurted out. _Stupid Rose_, she thought to herself. She hadn't even known him for more than a few minutes! "Dad and Uncle Harry always say how awful he is, and you're not awful at all."

Scorpius smiled. "I don't want to hate people like he does. I don't want to be prejudiced against Potters and Weasleys. You're pretty cool, too."

"Thanks," she said quietly.

They sat there in silence, trying to figure out something, anything to say before the train would speed away and they'd be lost in the blur of the landscape. Rose pointed to the still-open book next to Scorpius and asked, "What's that?"

"This? A Potions book. I'm really into that kind of stuff."

Rose's mouth dropped open. "Seriously? I've read the one for this year cover to cover! It's so fascinating!"

"My father bought me another one because I loved the other one so much. You can borrow it when I'm done, if you want."

"Thanks." Rose blushed again. She had never expected a Malfoy, the hated enemy of the Potters and Weasleys, to be so _nice_. Scorpius was the exact opposite of everything her dad and uncles had told her stories about. He was one of the nicest boys she had ever met and couldn't fathom why her father would say such harsh words against him.

"So what brings you here?"

"I'm looking for my best friend," Rose said, "but I don't know where he is. I can't find him anywhere in this chaos. I only picked this compartment because there was no one coming out of it."

"Albus Potter?" he asked, and she gave him an astonished look. "I ran into him earlier. Lucky guess. But I know where he is."

Her heart quickened. She wanted to find that cousin and hex him – if she knew how. "You do? I've been looking for him this whole time!"

"I could take you to him, if you want." But Rose could see a flame start to dim behind his eyes. He didn't want her to go to her cousin, it was obvious. And as much as she would love to yell at Al for darting onto the Hogwarts Express without her, something was telling her to stay here with Scorpius Malfoy. Her first friend at Hogwarts.

"No, it's okay," she said, her face breaking into a smile at her own little surprise that she had unwrapped today. "I'd like to stay here with you."

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**A/N:** I've had this one written forever. I'm glad I finally get to post it. :)

Reviews are love! Thanks!


	34. Drink

**Disclaimer:** Totally don't own this… at all.

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_**.:Live to Love:.**_

**.x. **_**drink**_** .x.**

"A drinking game."

"What?" cried the five other people in the room in a mix of horror and excitement. Rose Weasley sat up on her heels, crossed her arms and looked at James in a disdainful way. The neck of the bottle of firewhiskey in her hand felt cold and alien. She had never gotten drunk before.

James Potter raised an eyebrow at everyone else in the circle. "Are you challenging one of the great James Potter drinking games?"

"Yes," Rose huffed. "This is the dumbest idea ever. And right before a _party_?"

He nodded. "That's the whole point, dearest cousin."

Albus, who was sitting next to her, just stared down at the bottle in his hands, unsure of what it was doing there and what he should do with it. The firewhiskey had just arrived from Uncle George that day, and James had eagerly found them and passed one out to the five of them: Rose, Albus, Louis, Dominique, and Scorpius Malfoy. The last of the group had been previously uninvited, but had gotten into it when him and Rose were on the way to the Slytherin house party, and James had grabbed Rose's hand and tugged her into the Room of Requirement. They were best friends, and best friends didn't let best friends get kidnapped by crazy cousins.

"I'm all for it," Louis said with a mischievous glint in his eyes.

Dominique, who was a fifth year just like James, shrugged her shoulders. "I'm ready to get smashed."

Scorpius touched Rose's hand lightly, and she whipped her head towards him. He murmured, "C'mon, let's do it."

Her eyes widened. "What? Are you _kidding_ me?" she whispered back.

He rolled his eyes. "No, for once. Let's enjoy ourselves for one night."

Rose sat there with a torn expression on her face. Her and Scorpius had always been two perfect angels, the ones who would become prefects next year and maybe even get Head Boy and Girl and had always saved the first years getting cursed by the seventh years when no one else would. This, which went without speaking, also meant that they wouldn't drink. Let alone play a drinking _game_.

But it was something they hadn't done before, and Rose always liked trying new things. She started to think that maybe she wouldn't get completely wasted. And maybe, like Scorpius said, she would enjoy herself a little bit more at the party in Slytherin common room later on.

"Okay. Scorpius and I are in." Rose met James's satisfied smirk with a confident glare of her own. If her nose were any higher in the air, it would touch the ceiling.

"If Rose is in," Albus said nervously, "then I'm in." He was constantly trying to adjust his moral compass to point due north, torn between goody-two-shoes Rose and his diabolical brother. But he always seemed to choose what Rose did, and tonight was no exception, even though Rose could tell Albus never expected she'd agree to this one of James's ideas.

James clapped his hands and rubbed them together. "Okay, then. You'll each get a catchphrase from me personally. Anyone from the party is allowed to say it. Okay, got it?"

Everyone nodded his or her head.

James made his way around the circle, whispering in everyone's ears. Rose watched Dom squeal with delight, Louis hang his head in disappointment, and Albus not even flinch as he stared emptily at his bottle, as if he wasn't surprised. When James's words tickled Scorpius's ear, the latter barely contained his annoyance, but eventually just shrugged and sat back easily.

"Okay, Rose," James said with a glint in his eyes that showed he wasn't up to any good.

He leaned in towards her and pressed his lips to her ear. "Yours is 'I love you, Rose,'" he whispered. His hot breath tickled her cheek. "And only Scorpius can say it."

She recoiled away from James to stare at him in awe. But even though his face betrayed no hint of emotion, she knew that his impassiveness was only a mask. _I love you, Rose._ Why would Scorpius say it, after all? She was going to protest the absurdness of it all, as her family was often inclined to do thanks to Hermione Granger's blood, but suddenly Louis cried, "Wait, we haven't given James one!"

"Louis, don't be a prick," he said with a snort. "I'm James Potter, and I don't need a catchphrase. Drinking games are above me."

Dominique exchanged a quick glance with Louis, and then leaned in towards James. "Oh, you, James Potter, definitely need a catchphrase. I've got that covered, Louis. You four get to the party."

When Rose lagged behind, eager to ask James what he meant by that catchphrase, Scorpius grabbed her hand and tugged her alongside him. "C'mon, Rose. We don't want to be even later than we already are and miss the fun too, do we?"

And so Albus, Louis, Scorpius, and Rose made their way down to the Slytherin common room in the dungeons, each with a bottle of whiskey concealed in their robes. Rose couldn't help but wonder why James had given her such a strange catchphrase. Scorpius would never say that to her. They were best friends, so he wouldn't just outright say tonight, "I love you, Rose." He would never say those words. He would never want to, and he would never have a reason to.

So why was the idea making Rose so uncomfortable?

When they entered the Slytherin common room – with Scorpius's help for the password – the party was in full swing. Teenagers from all houses were climbing on couches, getting drunk, hooking up, and shouting over the din of the crowd and the pulsating music in the background. A ping-pong table was conjured in one corner, and they were playing a common Muggle game called Beirut that Rose had only read about before.

"Wow, Scorpius," Rose said simply. "This is crazy."

And he raised his bottle to his mouth to drink.

When he brought it back down, an expression of distaste was written over his features, but he only smirked and said, "And it's about to get a lot crazier with this little drinking game."

The party progressed as any hormone-infested, drunk-stupor teenage rave would. When anyone said Scorpius's name – which was quite common, since Rose was apt to cry it out when searching for him, and people were constantly greeting him from all houses – he would drink. It wasn't James's greatest invention in terms of creativity, but it was effective. After three hours, he was already completely smashed and couldn't even stand straight. He eventually collapsed on a couch, three-fourths of the whiskey already drunk.

Rose ran into Albus later on in the party. He was leaning on the wall, his bottle clutched in his hand, which was shaking uncontrollably. She noticed that his bottle was one-fourths empty, and made a note irritably that she still hadn't drunk a lick of whiskey – but honestly, had James really expected her to? He must've taken pity on her for being a drinking virgin and given her a command that Scorpius wouldn't say. It was the most plausible reason she could come up with, short of asking James himself. But she hadn't seen him around all night.

"Hey, Al," she said. "What's up?"

"I can't go and join in on the party," he said in a terrified voice. "I don't want to drink anymore!"

"What's your catchphrase?" she asked out of curiosity.

"'James Potter, you're amazing.' It _would_ be like my brother to come up with something like that. I'm scared as he gets more drunk and so does everyone else, it'll become a more popular phrase." He shook his bottle, and then took another drink. His face crinkled in dislike.

"So you're hiding away here until the party's over?" I asked.

"That's the plan. Plus, this whiskey tastes like Merlin's ass."

Rose laughed.

He added, "And at least you're not performing strip teases on the table, wasted out of your mind. 'James Potter, you're such a prick,' is a much more common phrase than mine."

Sure enough, as Rose turned around, she caught sight of Dominique up on the common room table. Her robe was lazily hanging off both of her shoulders, and she was twirling around her platinum blonde hair, no doubt from the Veela blood in her. She was laughing and casting her stupefied eyes around the room, looking for the perfect guy to join her.

He continued, "And James obviously wanted to screw with Louis and gave him, 'Oh, Merlin's old gray beard.' Which drunks are not really prone to utter, in case you were wondering."

Suddenly Albus flicked her bottle, and Rose turned right back around. "You haven't drank _anything_ yet?" he said, astonished. "What's your catchphrase?"

She didn't want to talk about it with Albus because it still made her feel uneasy, so she only shrugged and went, "Something that's never going to be said. James was going easy on me. I'll see you later, okay, Albus?"

And before he could ask another question, she dashed off in her quest to find James.

Although it was kind of hard to. The party was continually filling up with more wizards and witches. And as the night wore on, she was becoming more and more nervous and anxious because she couldn't find James, and she found herself actually not wanting to see Scorpius for the rest of the night, even if she was convinced he would never say her catchphrase. She started to realize that James wasn't as benevolent as he seemed and must have had a hidden motive for her catchphrase, because it was making her feel so many conflicting emotions at once.

Scorpius didn't love her like the phrase implied. They were best friends – peas in a pod, pieces of a puzzle – never meant to be anything more significant or meaningful. It wasn't like they would ever be together, in a relationship or dating or married; there were no romantic feelings between them. Sure, they would occasionally hold each other's hands, and sometimes Rose would jump on his back and he would piggyback her across the school grounds to the Quidditch pitch, and maybe they would lay each other's heads on each other's shoulders when they were tired. But that was what friends _did_, right?

Her palms were starting to sweat, and she wasn't even drunk. What if there was a possibility that Scorpius _did_ love her, and that James had concocted this plan to get Scorpius to tell her? He had given Scorpius such an easy catchphrase, and maybe on purpose so that Scorpius could get so incredibly drunk that he would say something. Say something that he wanted to. Maybe his lips had been screwed together for so long, and alcohol was the perfect screwdriver.

Rose suddenly felt anger and raging anxiety flare up inside her. She marched around the common room with a new determination until she found James in the middle of the throng, an empty bottle of firewhiskey in his hands. She had learned before that his catchphrase was, "Because _I'm_ James Potter," which he apparently announced quite often.

"James," Rose said, trying to keep an even voice, "why did you give me that catchphrase?"

James, whose eyes were glassed over, went in a dazed voice, "What catchphrase?"

"You_ know_ what catchphrase," she hissed. "The one that only Scorpius can say? 'I love you, Rose'?"

"Oh, that." He shrugged.

"_Why_?"

James's eyes narrowed, and he glared back at Rose. "Not so _loud_. It hurts my fragile ears."

"Please tell me why you gave me that catchphrase," she said in a strangled voice.

"Because Scorpius obviously does love you. Now excuse me, but I can't deal with your petty little problems anymore, love, because I'm James Potter."

He stopped where he was going and looked down at his firewhiskey bottle. Upon seeing it empty, he shrugged, then brushed past her without another word.

Rose decided to head out and look for Scorpius, but it was all in a daze. James's words were twisting inside her brain, and she knew that even that conversation was a part of James's evil plan. Because it was all eating up Rose inside. She honestly wasn't sure how to deal with it – the noise and commotion of the party, the smell of butterbeer and firewhiskey lingering in the air, and most of all, the news that Scorpius loved her, even if it was only a secondhand admission for a scheming cousin.

She needed to talk to Scorpius.

When she finally found him, he was sprawled out on the same green couch he was when she last saw him. His finger was tracing the cheekbone of a blonde girl who was kneeling beside him, and another brunette was sitting on the back of the couch and leaning down, laughing and giggling. His now-empty firewhiskey bottle was rolling on the floor next to him.

Rose, with the newfound knowledge that he loved her, flinched when his gaze turned to hers. He still had a lazy alcohol-induced smile on his face, but when he saw her, his gaze became focused on hers, and he politely told the blonde to leave.

_He doesn't love me_, she repeated in her head to calm herself. Everything was becoming way too different for her taste. She never was fond of change, and there was definitely a _reason_ they didn't drink; she knew this was it.

"Here, Rose," he said and patted his lap. Of course he wasn't in his right mind, and even though she was apprehensive, and he wasn't thinking clearly, she tentatively took a seat on his lap. Her legs draped over his, and it felt weird; they were already way out of their comfort zone.

Scorpius just stared at her, his gray eyes probing deep into hers. Her breathing was slowing down. They were just looking at each other, and Rose was waiting. Waiting for when he would say what she had been dreading – and now, she realized, _hoping_ – to hear the whole night.

"You're not drunk," he said.

She shook her head.

"James must've given you a pretty bad catchphrase, huh?" he asked, chuckling.

She couldn't stand it anymore, the small talk and beating around the bush, and she knew that this was James's intention all along. Her catchphrase, he knew, would cause her sober and rational mind to tear itself apart, trying to find reason in it. Her curiosity had gotten the best of her, as she knew James had hoped, and she just couldn't sit there wondering a minute longer.

"Scorpius," she said carefully, "do you love me?"

He looked as if a ton of bricks had hit him. His arms tightened around her, and he tugged her closer to him. Her hands pressed up against his chest, and her legs fell against his, and their lips were inches away from each other, but Rose forced her gaze up to meet his.

His breath tickled her cheeks as he whispered, "Yes. I love you, Rose."

And he pressed his lips to hers.

Maybe she had intended to drink when she heard those words, and maybe she hadn't. But the feel of his lips on hers was electric and invigorating, and she was becoming slowly addicted to it. They fell sideways against the couch, completely and absolutely enveloped in each other. When she eventually opened her eyes, she caught James's eye, and he winked and mouthed, "It's all in the game, love."

And then she finally knew what being drunk was truly like.

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**A/N:** I had written a good portion of this, then suddenly stopped. I revisited it a month ago, finished it, and then abandoned it again. Now I finally finished editing it, and here it is for all of you. :)

In real life, I'm totally against drinking and everything. But inspiration struck for this idea, and although it isn't original or my best piece of writing, I hope you like it. :) Please review! Thanks everyone!


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